| Sinjin Smith | |
| Nickname: | Sinjin |
| Birth Name: | Christopher St. John Smith |
| Birth Place: | Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Height: | 6'3" |
| Position: | Setter |
| Teamnumber: | 22 (UCLA) |
| College: | University of California, Los Angeles |
| Medaltemplates-Expand: | yes |
| Medaltemplates-Title: | Medal record |
Christopher St. John "Sinjin" Smith (born May 7, 1957, in Santa Monica, California) is an American former professional beach volleyball player.[1] He was the first player to win 100 career tournaments, and won numerous Manhattan Open titles with Karch Kiraly and Randy Stoklos as partners.[2]
Smith went to college at UCLA, where he was a setter.[3] UCLA won the National Championship in Smith's freshman year. In his junior year, the team again reached the finals before losing to Pepperdine, and Smith was selected to the All-Tournament Team.[4] In his senior year in 1979, the Bruins defeated cross-town rival USC to win the National Championship. Smith was again selected to the All-Tournament Team, and was voted the Championship's Most Outstanding Player. Smith was selected as an All-American in both his junior and senior years.
Smith was inducted into the UCLA Hall of Fame in 1991.[5]
Smith began to compete as a professional in the two-man beach volleyball tournaments of Southern California at age fifteen. He won his first beach tournament with former UCLA teammate "Stormin" Mike Normand. He won his first Manhattan Open in 1979 teaming with another UCLA alum, Jim Menges.[6] In the early 1980s, he made a successful beach team pairing with former UCLA teammate Kiraly.[6] They split up when Kiraly committed full-time to the U.S. national team.[7]
Smith moved on to partner with Stoklos, and the two became the most dominant pair in men's beach volleyball.[8] [6] Smith was selected as the Best Defensive Player by the AVP in 1990, 1991, and 1992. He won a bronze medal in beach volleyball at the 1994 Goodwill Games in Saint Petersburg, Russia.[6]
By the time Smith announced his retirement in 2001, he had won 139 career tournaments. He had also amassed $1,700,000 in career prize money. As a primary force behind the growth of beach volleyball as a sport, he was inducted into the California Beach Volleyball Hall of Fame in 2002 and the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in 2003.
The pair of Smith and Stoklos was featured in the video game Kings of the Beach released by Electronic Arts for MS-DOS in 1988 and Commodore 64 in 1989, and in 1990 it was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System.[9] The pair also appeared in the 1990 film Side Out as the nemesis team of Rollo Vincent (Stoklos) and Billy Cross (Smith).[10]
Smith had a brief career as a television actor, appearing most notably on an episode of Magnum, P.I. as Magnum's volleyball partner who winds up dead under suspicious circumstances.
In 1990, Smith was selected as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" by People.