Cassidy Lichtman (born May 25, 1989) is an American female

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

player. She was part of the

United States women's national volleyball team The United States women's national volleyball team participates in international volleyball competitions and friendly games, and is governed by USA Volleyball. Their last head coach was three-time Olympic gold medalist and retired dominant be ...

from 2011 to 2016 .

Professional career

She participated in the

2014 FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix The 2014 FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix was the 22nd edition of the annual women's international volleyball tournament played by 28 countries from 25 July to 24 August 2014. The Group 1 final round was held in Tokyo, Japan. The Brazilian star te ...

, the 2011 and 2015 Pan American Games and the 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 PanAmerican Cups. On the club level she played for five years in Poland, Switzerland, Azerbaijan, France and China, ending with Sichuan Women's Volleyball in 2015. In 2021 Lichtman came out of retirement to become a founding member in the first season of Athletes Unlimited Pro Volleyball. She played in the first two seasons of the new league, earning a medal with a fourth place finish in Season 2. During this time she was also the first athlete to sit on the Board of Directors of Athletes Unlimited. In 2022, Lichtman retired from competition and became the Director of Volleyball for Athletes Unlimited. She was named one of AdWeek's Most Powerful Women in Sports in 2022.

College career

Lichtman graduated from Stanford in 2011 with a BA in political science and an MA in history. She received both degrees in only four years while also playing for the Stanford Women's Volleyball Team. She played multiple positions including outside hitter and setter. Her teams won four Pac10 Championships and Lichtman was named a first team AVCA All-American in both her junior and senior seasons. She was also named to the first team Academic All-American. After retiring from the US National Team in 2016, Lichtman returned to Stanford as an assistant coach during the 2016 season when Stanford Volleyball won the National Championship.

Later career

After retiring from the National Team, Lichtman worked for former US Chief Technology Officer, Megan Smith, at shift7. In 2019, she was elected to the Board of Directors of USA Volleyball In 2020 she started the nonprofit P/ATH, which works within the sports world to better develop skills around empathy and empowerment.

Early life

At age nine, Lichtman was told she would likely never walk again due to a chronic pain disorder in her leg. She began to walk on her own and dealt with this pain throughout her entire athletic career. She was inspired to pursue a career in volleyball at the age of 9 when she saw the Francis Parker School varsity volleyball team win the state championship. When the team won the championship she stated, “Yeah, I want to do that.” Lichtman graduated from Francis Parker School in San Diego in 2007.

References

External links

Profile
at ''FIVB.org''
Profile
at USAVolleyball.org
Blog
1989 births Living people American women's volleyball players Place of birth missing (living people) Wing spikers American expatriate volleyball players in China Volleyball players at the 2011 Pan American Games Volleyball players at the 2015 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2015 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in volleyball Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States in volleyball Stanford Cardinal women's volleyball players 21st-century American sportswomen Volleyball players from San Diego Sportspeople from San Diego County, California Francis Parker School (San Diego) alumni Athletes Unlimited volleyball players Stanford Cardinal women's volleyball coaches {{US-volleyball-bio-stub