Donald Suxho

The Olympic Albanian American volleyball player who scores for Team USA is now aiming at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.  

Donald Suxho was born and raised in Korçë, Albania, under a Communist regime, where reaching for one’s dreams seemed impossible. “The Communist regime had put such a low ceiling on our lives, that all we strived for was to be common and good people,” Suxho remembers. But that did not stop Suxho from aiming higher. Despite his limitations, he started playing soccer at 9 years old for K.F. Skënderbeu Korçë—a football club in his hometown. At 11 years old, he switched to a youth volleyball team in Korçë and excelled. His innate talent led him to play starting setter—as the youngest player on the team—for his father’s pro-club team. “I trained really hard every day and when I was 16 years old, I was invited to play for the Albanian Junior National Team,” Suxho says. “I played with them for three years  and won the Balkan Best Setter Award in Turkey.”