Incredibly athletic Tillie family looms large at Paris Olympics

PARIS — The most athletic volleyball family? It would be tough not to give the nod to the Tillies of France, who are well-represented at these Paris Olympics, and not just in men’s volleyball. Start with Laurent, the two-time French Olympian who then coached France to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics gold medal. We caught up […]

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PARIS — The most athletic volleyball family?

It would be tough not to give the nod to the Tillies of France, who are well-represented at these Paris Olympics, and not just in men’s volleyball.

Start with Laurent, the two-time French Olympian who then coached France to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics gold medal. We caught up with him Thursday when he came to South Paris Arena 1 during the USA women’s practice and visited with Marv Dunphy. Dunphy, a USA assistant, was the longtime coach at Pepperdine and coached the 1988 USA men to Olympics gold. Dunphy and Tillie go way back.

.Laurent, 60, is working for French TV, and so is his brother. More on that in a bit.

The France team that won gold in Tokyo included Tillie’s son, 6-foot-7 Kevin. Kevin, 33, won back-to-back NCAA titles at UC Irvine, where his coach was USA Olympic coach John Speraw. Kevin has played professionally since 2013 and is on the French men’s Olympic team here.

(UC Irvine side note: Tillie is one of three former Anteaters playing volleyball in Paris. USA middle David Smith, 39, played at UCI from 2004-07. Australian Thomas Hodges, 30, played at UCI in 2015, and is in these Games in beach volleyball with partner Zachary Schubert).

The oldest Tillie brother, 36-year-old Kim, played basketball at Utah. Kim, 6-11, has played professionally in Europe since 2010 and played on the French team that made it to the Rio Olympics.

And little brother, Killian, 26, you might recall, was a freshman at  Gonzaga when the Bulldogs made it to the 2017 NCAA Final Four championship game against North Carolina. Killian, 6-9, played for the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies from 2020-2022 but injuries have kept him out of the game for two years. He’s making a comeback and his father just last week went to Las Vegas see him play in the NBA’s summer league for the Boston Celtics.

Laurent doesn’t, however, get all the credit for the boys. His wife, the former Caroline Keulen, was the captain of the Dutch national volleyball team.

And, incredibly, it doesn’t end there. Laurent’s brother, Patrice, was on the French national water polo team. At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Laurent was playing for France in volleyball and Patrice represented their country in water polo.

Like his brother, Patrice works for French TV, in this case calling Olympics water polo.

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