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German Olympic Volleyball Player Immortalized By Spiked Ball to the Face

Stephen Douglas

Germany’s Moritz Karlitzek thinks he’s about to make a play on the ball.
Germany’s Moritz Karlitzek thinks he’s about to make a play on the ball. /

France beat Germany in the quarterfinals of the men's Olympic volleyball competition on Monday. Germany blew a 2-0 lead as the defending champions came back to advance to the semifinals. They'll take on Italy on Wednesday with a trip to the gold medal match on the line.

To add insult to injury and a bad result, the one highlight from the match that NBC Sports is sharing is Germany's Moritz Karlitzek getting hit in the face with a rocket spike from France's Barthelemy Chinenyeze.

No offense to Karlitzek, but when a 6-foot-8 middle blocker who is also a Knight of the Legion d'honneur goes up for a ball set that perfectly, you have to just get out of the way. You don't get an award like that for not being awesome at volleyball.

And the consequences for not getting out of the way? American television stations are going to be tweeting about you.

We love bloopers and there's nothing more comedically pure than someone getting hit in the face with a sports ball. Sorry, those are the rules. Thank you for your service.

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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a Senior Writer on the Breaking & Trending News Team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in journalism and media since 2008, and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Stephen spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and has previously written for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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