Michał Ruciak

Michał Zygmunt Ruciak (born 22 August 1983) is a Polish former professional volleyball player. He was part of the Polish national team in 2004–2014, a participant at the Olympic Games London 2012, the 2009 European Champion and the 2012 World League winner.

Michał Ruciak
Personal information
Full name	Michał Zygmunt Ruciak
Nickname	Rucek
Nationality	Polish
Born	(1983-08-22) 22 August 1983 (age 40) Świnoujście, Poland
Height	1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Volleyball information
Position	Outside hitter / Libero
Career
Years Teams 2002–2003 2003–2004 2004–2008 2008–2015 2015–2016 2016–2018 2018–2020 2020–2022 Morze Bałtyk Szczecin Skra Bełchatów AZS Olsztyn ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle Transfer Bydgoszcz Espadon Szczecin Czarni Radom Stal Nysa
National team
2004–2014  Poland (166)
Honours Men's volleyball Representing  Poland FIVB World Cup 2011 Japan FIVB World League 2012 Sofia 2011 Gdańsk CEV European Championship 2009 Turkey 2011 Austria/Czech Republic

Personal life

Michał Ruciak was born in Świnoujście, Poland. On 22 September 2007 he married Justyna (née Terlecka). They have two sons: Rafał (born on 2 June 2008) and Filip (born on 18 March 2011). In 2014 they split up. In 2016 he married Paulina. In April 2018 they revealed they are expecting their first child.

 

Ruciak during the match with Trefl Gdańsk on 14 October 2012.

Career

Clubs

He began to play with Maraton Świnoujście, later moving to Morze Szczecin, Skra Bełchatów and AZS Olsztyn. In 2008 moved to ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle. After 7 seasons in ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle, he left this club in April 2015.^[1]

National team

Michał Ruciak was in the Polish squad when the Polish national team won the gold medal of European Championship 2009.^[2] On September 14, 2009 he was awarded Knight's Cross of Polonia Restituta.^[3] The Order was conferred on the following day by the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk. He won with Polish team three medals in 2011 - silver at World Cup^[4] and two bronzes at World League^[5] and European Championship.^[6] He is a gold medalist of World League 2012 in Sofia, Bulgaria.^[7][8]

Honours

Clubs

• CEV Cup
  •   2010/2011 – with ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle
• National championships
  • 2004/2005   Polish Championship, with AZS Olsztyn
  • 2010/2011   Polish Championship, with ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle
  • 2012/2013   Polish Cup, with ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle
  • 2012/2013   Polish Championship, with ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle
  • 2013/2014   Polish Cup, with ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle

Youth national team

• 2003   FIVB U21 World Championship

Individual awards

• 2013: Polish Cup – Best Server
• 2014: Polish Cup – Best Receiver

State awards

• 2009:   Knight's Cross of Polonia Restituta

References

1. Zmiany w ZAKSIE – plusliga.pl – 21-04-2015
2. 2009 CEV European Championships Results – cev.eu – 03-09-2009
3. Reprezentacja siatkarzy odznaczona przez prezydenta 2014-03-09 at the Wayback Machine – prezydent.pl – 15-09-2009
4. Poland shoot up World Rankings on back of World Cup silver – fivb.org – 06-12-2011
5. 2011 FIVB Volleyball World League Final Report – fivb.org – 10-07-2011
6. Bartosz Kurek is the man of the day as Poland strikes bronze at EuroVolley – cev.eu – 18-09-2011
7. Poland beat USA to claim first World League title – fivb.org – 08-07-2012
8. Poland wins historical gold at the 2012 World League – fivb.org – 08-07-2012

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michał Ruciak.

• Player profile at the European Volleyball Confederation
• Player profile at PlusLiga.pl (in Polish)
• Player profile at Volleybox.net