Mireya Luis, Cuba's Olympic Outside Hitting High Jumping Superstar  

At 5' 10" Cuban Olympian hitter, Mireya Luis was one of the smallest elite outside hitters in the world and led the Cuba women to win 3 Olympic gold medals.

Alejandina Mireya Luis Hernández, often referred to as Mireya was born on February 25, 1967 in Camagüey.

She helped her country and club where she played to win several trophies with her main position as a wing spiker.

At 5' 10" Mireya was one of the smallest elite world class outside hitters in international competition.

She was known for her tremendous jumping ability having 36 inch vertical on a bad day, and on good days jumping closer to 40 inches.

A member of the first Olympic women's team in history to win three gold medals in three consecutive Olympic Games.

• 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona - Gold

• 2000 Olympic Games - Gold

World Championship Experience

• 1985 World Championships u20 Most Valuable Player 
• 1986 World Championships
• 1985 World Cup - Best Spiker 
• 1989 World Cup - Most Valuable Player 
• 1989 World Cup - Best Spiker 
• 1991 World Cup - Best Scorer 
• 1993 World Grand Prix - Best Spiker 
• 1994 World Grand Prix - Best Spiker 
• 1994 World Championships - Best Spiker 
• 1995 World Cup - Best Spiker 
• 1995 World Cup  - Most Valuable Player

Major International Competition

• 1983 winner of Pan American Games with Cuban National team
• 1986 World Championships - Silver medal with Cuban National team
• 1990, 1994 and 1998 World Championships - Gold Medal with Cuban National team

• 1991 first ever gold medal at the World Cup in Mexico

• 2004 inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame

Mireya competed professionally in Cuba for a number of years before venturing outside of her country to play in Japan for the top Daiei-Hitachi team before playing in Italy for Bergamo Volley, the same team Francesca Piccinini played for. 

Watch as Paula Weishoff and Mireya Luis compete together on the same team in Japan. 

• 1994-1995 champion Top Volley International with Camaguey

• 1993-1994 fifth place club world championship with Camaguey

• 1998-1999 Italian Super Cup champion with Bergamo Volley

• 2000 retirement

Did you know that Mireya....

Started playing volleyball at the age of 10

Was a starting outside hitter for the Cuban National team at age 15

Luis is known for her spectacular jumping power reaching 3.39 meter 936 inch), more than any other player, though being only 1.75 meter tall. (5' 10")

She earned numerous "best scorer", "best spiker" and "best player" awards at world, Olympic and continental championships.

Mireya helped lead her Cuban National team to a silver medal just weeks after having her baby girl

When asked about the Olympic experience

2000 Sydney Olympics: “Many teams had a lot of chances to be champions at that time, we faced the Russians in the finals and we were down by two sets against them,” she recalled. “Everybody thought we would lose but we did not quit. In the end we won the next three sets and the effort was worth a lot.”

Sources

Revolvy Mireya Luis

Mireya Luis Volleyball Movies Indoor Tournaments

Wikipedia Mireya Luis

Volleywood Mireya's Hope for Cuba 

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