Smith and Stoklos were reprimanded by the AVP in
1992for skipping a tournament in Seal Beach to play in an
international tournament in Spain. The event in Almeria came up
a week after the Barcelona Olympics and was a trial
run of sorts for intrigued members of the
International Olympic Committee. It also had a generous prize
pool of $250,000.AVP officials thought Smith was
chasing the money.Smith thought otherwise.<br>"[AVP
management] was telling us we couldn't go to an event that
had a big impact on whether beach volleyball would
become an Olympic sport," he said.Smith and Stoklos were
each fined $35,000 for skipping Seal Beach.A year
later, Smith left for the rival international
tour,although he did not leave controversy behind,
quarrelingwith AVP players during the qualification process for
the<br>Atlanta Olympics.Kiraly, who had remained with the AVP
and consideredSmith a turncoat for choosing the
international tour, was irritated that Smith and partner Carl
Henkel were grantedan automatic Olympic berth by virtue
of their ranking on the international tour.Kiraly
didn't understand why he and other U.S. players had to
beat one another up in the U.S. Olympic trials in
Baltimore, while Smith and Henkel got to watch from
afar.<br>"I have nothing against him personally," Kiraly said
at the time, "But I am critical of an Olympic
qualification system that allowed a certain team to be exempt
of [U.S.] Olympic trials."<br>To some extent, the
dispute was settled on the court.Kiraly and partner Kent
Steffes qualified via the U.S.trials and met Smith and
Henkel in the Olympics with a semifinal berth on the
line. In one of the top beach matches in history,
Kiraly and Steffes won, 17-15, and went on to take the
gold medal."I was mistaken," Kiraly said afterward.
"They gave us all we could handle and more. The way
they played today proved they should be here."Smith
still carries worldwide clout as president of the
international beach volleyball world council. He was brought
back to the AVP when it was purchased in May by sports
agent Leonard Armato, who used to represent
Smith.<br>As Smith gets ready to walk off the sand for the
last time in a tournament, he knows he is making a
wise choice.He is also ending on a civil note with
Kiraly.They spoke last Saturday at the Santa Barbara
Open.Kiraly, 40, told Smith he would be missed."I think he's
done an incredible job of promoting beach volleyball
here in the '80s, through the early part of the '90s
and then overseas after that," said Kiraly, who
passed<br>Smith's career tournament titles record in July 1999, and
now has 142. "He's one of the guys responsible for
getting beach volleyball in the Olympics and he deserves
a lot of credit for that.<br>"It's unfortunate that
he's retiring and most people in the sport haven't had
a chance to see him. He essentially had to leave
the country for a few years to qualify for the
Olympics. But he's still fun to watch and has been an
ncredibly tenacious competitor."