Samuel Schachter (born May 8, 1990) is a Canadian Olympic

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two to four players each on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side o ...

player. In 2010 he won the FIVB World Junior (U-21) Championship with Garrett May. He and partner Josh Binstock were 2014 Canadian national champions, and represented Canada at the

2015 Pan American Games The 2015 Pan American Games (), officially the XVII Pan American Games () and commonly known as the Toronto 2015 Pan-Am Games (Toronto 2015), were a major international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Pan American Games, ...

and the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, he and Binstock earned silver medals. He is competing with partner Daniel Dearing at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the Men's tournament.

Early and personal life

Schachter was born in

North York North York is a former township and city and is now one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the northern area of Toronto, centred around Yonge Street, north of Ontario Highway 401. It is bounded by ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, lived in

Richmond Hill, Ontario Richmond Hill ( 2021 population: 202,022) is a city in south-central York Region, Ontario, Canada. Part of the Greater Toronto Area, it is the York Region's third most populous municipality and the 27th most populous municipality in Canada. Ric ...

, now lives in

Scarborough, Ontario Scarborough (; 2021 Canadian census, 2021 Census 629,941) is a district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is situated in the eastern part of the City of Toronto. Its borders are Victoria Park Avenue to the west, Steeles Avenue (Toronto), Steele ...

, and is Jewish. His parents are Jon and Doris Schachter, and he has an older brother Nathan. He was married to former Canadian beach volleyball player Julie Gordon in September 2024. He attended Westmount Collegiate Institute for high school. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Communications Studies at

Wilfrid Laurier University Wilfrid Laurier University (commonly referred to as WLU or simply Laurier) is a Public university, public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Ontario, Waterloo, Brantford, Ontario, Brantford and Milton, Ontario, Milton. The ...

, competing for the

Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks, commonly shortened to Laurier Golden Hawks, is the name used by the varsity sports teams of Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The university's varsity teams compete in the Ontario Universit ...

, with whom he was

Ontario University Athletics Ontario University Athletics (OUA; ) is a regional membership association for Canadian universities which assists in co-ordinating competition between their university level athletic programs and providing contact information, schedules, results, ...

2009 Rookie of the Year and CIS All-Rookie Team."Sam Schachter,"
olympic.ca. He has coached the

Toronto Varsity Blues The Toronto Varsity Blues are the intercollegiate sports program at the University of Toronto. Its 43 athletic teams regularly participate in competitions held by Ontario University Athletics and U Sports. The Varsity Blues trace their foundin ...

, George Brown College, and

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

men's volleyball teams.

Volleyball career

2010–2016; 2016 Rio Olympics

In 2010 he won the FIVB World Junior (U-21) Championship with Garrett May. At the 2013 Maccabiah Games in Israel, he and his then-partner Josh Binstock playing for Team Canada won a

silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

in volleyball, losing the gold medal to the Israelis. In 2014 he and Binstock were Canadian national champions. They also won a gold medal at the Parana Open, an FIVB (international volleyball federation) World Tour event. He was named the (U.S.) National Volleyball League (NVL) 2014 Best Defensive Player. In 2015 they competed at the

in Toronto, and finished 8th, after Schachter suffered a back injury prevented them from playing in the relegation round. They finished 9th at the 2015

FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship The FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship is an international volleyball competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of ' (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The initial gap between championships was variab ...

. In June of that year they also came in second at the Major Series tournament in

Poreč Poreč (; known also by several alternative names) is a town and municipality on the western coast of the Istrian peninsula, in Istria County, west Croatia. Its major landmark is the 6th-century Euphrasian Basilica, which was designated a UN ...

, Croatia, the first time a Canadian men's team had reached the podium in a major FIVB World Tour event since 1997. They competed in the 2015 FIVB World Championship, finishing ninth. In May 2016, they finishing second at the FIVB Beach Volleyball Cincinnati Open. Schachter competed along with Binstock at the

, where they came in 19th.

2017–present; 2024 Paris Olympics

20170730 Beach Volleyball WM Vienna 3638

At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, he and Sam Pedlow won the silver medal at Gold Coast. Schachter and Daniel Dearing teamed up in 2022. They qualified for the 2022 FIVB World Championships. They then won the silver medal at the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, were an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England betw ...

in Birmingham, England. Schachter and Dearing then won the 2022 NORCECA Beach Tour Final, in

Punta Cana, Dominican Republic Punta Cana is a resort town in the easternmost region of the Dominican Republic. It was politically incorporated as the "Verón–Punta Cana township" in 2006, and it is subject to the municipality of Higüey ( La Altagracia Province). Accordi ...

. In September 2023, Schachter and Dearing earned a Beach Pro Tour victory together, at the Futures event in

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2024, it is estimated that the population of the H ...

. In June 2024 he and Dearing won the NORCECA Olympic Qualification Tournament in Tlaxcala, Mexico, winning all six matches in straight sets, qualifying them for the 2024 Paris Olympics. At the Paris 2024 Olympics, in the Men's tournament, he and Dearing lost their first match 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) to reigning world champions Ondřej Perušič and David Schweiner of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

at Eiffel Tower Stadium on the

Champ de Mars Champ, CHAMP or The Champ may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Champ (cartoon character), an animated dog introduced in 1960 * The Champ, played on radio and created by Jake Edwards (radio personality), Jake Edwards * Champ ...

."Canadian rugby sevens women defeat Fiji, fall to New Zealand to open Paris 2024 campaign,"
CBC.

References