Justin Gai-Leun Lui (born May 8, 2000) is a retired Canadian volleyball libero and Paris 2024 Olympian from Pickering, Ontario. Standing 178 cm, he developed through Durham Attack and Stanford University before representing Canada across the Volleyball Nations League, NORCECA competition, the Olympic Games and the 2025 FIVB World Championship. His time in Canada’s national-team system ultimately spanned eight seasons.
Lui earned AVCA All-America honorable mention recognition in each of his final two Stanford seasons, then spent three professional seasons in Europe with Vantaa Ducks, VK Dukla Liberec and HAOK Mladost Zagreb. His last professional season ended with Mladost winning both the Croatian Cup and Croatian Superliga. On October 8, 2026, Volleyball Canada announced that Lui was stepping away from the national team and had also retired from professional volleyball in Europe.
Player Information
| Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Justin Gai-Leun Lui |
| Date of Birth | May 8, 2000 |
| Birthplace | Markham, Ontario, Canada |
| Hometown | Pickering, Ontario, Canada |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Position | Libero |
| Height | 178 cm / 5 ft 10 in |
| Weight | 77 kg / 170 lb |
| Standing Reach | 230 cm / 7 ft 6 in |
| Spike Touch | 318 cm / 10 ft 5 in |
| Block Touch | 304 cm / 10 ft 0 in |
| Dominant Hand | Right |
| University | Stanford University |
| College Team | Stanford Cardinal |
| Professional Clubs | Vantaa Ducks (2023–24), VK Dukla Liberec (2024–25), HAOK Mladost Zagreb (2025–26) |
| Final Professional Club | HAOK Mladost Zagreb |
| National Team | Canada Men’s National Volleyball Team |
| National-Team Number | No. 18 |
| Final Club Number | No. 18 at HAOK Mladost Zagreb |
| Olympic Games | Paris 2024 — 10th place |
| Career Status | Retired in 2026 |
| Official Website | JustinLuiVolleyball.com |
| @justin.lui |
Early Life & Volleyball Beginnings
Lui was born in Markham, Ontario, and identifies Pickering as his hometown. Volleyball entered his life at age 12, with his older sister Kayla playing an important role in introducing him to the sport. He went on to play for Durham Attack Volleyball Club, where he captained his team from 2015 through 2018 and was part of a program that won four consecutive Ontario Volleyball Association provincial championships from 2014 to 2017 and Canadian national titles in 2014 and 2016.
He attended Pickering High School and became the first volleyball player from the school to move on to an NCAA Division I program. His pre-college résumé also included a 2017 USA High Performance championship, a Canada Games title that year, OVA All-Star selections and experience in Canada’s junior national-team pathway. Stanford brought him into its program in 2018, providing both a higher competitive level and an academic path that he would continue through undergraduate and graduate degrees.
Club Career
Stanford: 2018–2023
Lui redshirted his first season at Stanford before taking on an unusual hybrid role in 2020. He appeared in every set that season, starting 12 matches at libero and five at setter. Against Pepperdine in February 2020, he produced a career-high 52 assists alongside 15 digs, an early example of the ball-control and second-contact range that would remain useful after he settled more firmly into the libero position. He averaged 2.23 digs per set that year, ranking second in the MPSF and 15th nationally.
By 2021, libero had become his established role. Lui started all 17 matches and again appeared in every Stanford set, averaging 1.92 digs per set. His final two seasons brought the strongest individual recognition of his college career. In 2022 he averaged 2.18 digs per set, ranked third in the MPSF and 15th nationally, and received AVCA All-America honorable mention, All-MPSF honorable mention and MPSF All-Tournament honors. He was also a finalist for both the Erik Shoji Award and the Steve Shondell Award.
As a redshirt senior in 2023, Lui started 27 matches at libero and led the MPSF with 2.10 digs per set while ranking 12th nationally. He recorded double-digit digs eight times, including a career-high 19 against UC Santa Barbara, and again received AVCA All-America honorable mention. He added All-MPSF second-team and MPSF All-Tournament recognition, closing his Stanford career as one of the conference’s most consistently recognized defensive players.
Professional Volleyball in Europe: 2023–2026
After graduating from Stanford, Lui moved directly into European professional volleyball. His first season was with Vantaa Ducks in Finland in 2023–24, followed by a 2024–25 season with VK Dukla Liberec in Czechia. In 2025 he moved to Croatia for his final professional season with HAOK Mladost Zagreb, where CEV records list him as the club’s No. 18 libero.
The Zagreb season gave Lui the most substantial team silverware of his professional career. Mladost completed an unbeaten 18-match regular-season league campaign and reached the Croatian Cup final against MOK Mursa-Osijek. Lui was the starting libero in all three sets as Mladost won the final 3–0 on March 21, 2026. The club then recovered from losing the opening match of the Croatian Superliga final series to win the next three and secure the national championship. In the title-clinching 3–0 victory in Osijek on April 29, Lui again started all three sets at libero.
That Croatian league-and-cup double became the closing chapter of his professional club career. By October 2026, Volleyball Canada confirmed that he had retired from professional play in Europe.
Club Career Timeline
| Seasons | Team | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 2018–2023 | Stanford Cardinal | United States |
| 2023–24 | Vantaa Ducks | Finland |
| 2024–25 | VK Dukla Liberec | Czechia |
| 2025–26 | HAOK Mladost Zagreb | Croatia |
National Team Career
Lui entered Canada’s international system before reaching the senior team. He competed at the 2018 NORCECA U21 Championship, where Canada won bronze, and appeared at the 2019 FIVB U21 World Championship. He then entered Canada’s National Excellence Program in 2020 and was part of the NextGen group that won silver at the 2021 NORCECA Continental Championship.
His senior international role expanded in 2022. Lui was selected for the Volleyball Nations League and helped Canada earn silver at the NORCECA Pan American Cup. In 2023, Canada finished 12th in the VNL, took silver at the NORCECA Continental Championship and, most importantly for the next stage of Lui’s career, secured an Olympic berth at the qualification tournament in Xi’an, China.
The 2024 season brought Canada’s strongest VNL finish of Lui’s tenure. The team placed sixth overall and reached the Final Eight quarterfinals before heading to Paris. Lui was one of the 12 players named to Canada’s Olympic roster, making his Olympic debut as Canada finished 10th in the men’s tournament.
Lui remained with Canada in 2025, appearing in his fourth VNL campaign as the team finished 13th before competing at the FIVB World Championship in the Philippines, where Canada placed 14th. Those events became his final major international competitions. Volleyball Canada’s October 2026 retirement announcement described his national-team involvement as an eight-season journey stretching from his development years to the Olympic stage.
Playing Style & Strengths
Lui’s strongest documented trait was sustained floor defense. Stanford’s statistics show that this was not limited to a single breakout season: he averaged 2.23 digs per set in 2020, 1.92 in 2021, 2.18 in 2022 and 2.10 in 2023. The latter figure led the MPSF and ranked 12th nationally. His career-high 19-dig performance against UC Santa Barbara and repeated MPSF defensive awards provide a clearer picture of his role than a generic description of libero responsibilities.
Serve reception was another central part of his international workload. At Paris 2024, Volleyball World recorded Lui with 76 reception actions, including 37 successful receptions, while its defensive statistics credited him with 17 digs across Canada’s three matches. Those numbers came on volleyball’s biggest stage and reinforce the same first-contact profile visible throughout his Stanford career.
His early experience as a setter added another layer to that profile. Lui made five collegiate starts at setter in 2020 and recorded 52 assists in one match against Pepperdine. That does not make setting a defining feature of his later international role, but it does provide evidence of comfort handling second contact and organizing the ball when a rally moved beyond the ideal first phase. Combined with his defensive consistency and reception responsibility, that versatility helps explain how he progressed from a hybrid college role into a specialist libero trusted at the VNL, World Championship and Olympic levels.
Major Achievements
Selected National Team Results
| Year | Competition | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | NORCECA U21 Continental Championship | Bronze |
| 2021 | NORCECA Continental Championship | Silver |
| 2022 | NORCECA Pan American Cup | Silver |
| 2023 | NORCECA Continental Championship | Silver |
| 2023 | FIVB Olympic Qualification Tournament | Earned Paris 2024 berth |
| 2024 | Volleyball Nations League | 6th; Final Eight quarterfinalist |
| 2024 | Paris Olympic Games | 10th |
Selected Club Honors
| Season | Competition | Result | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025–26 | Croatian Superliga | Champion | HAOK Mladost Zagreb |
| 2025–26 | Croatian Cup | Winner | HAOK Mladost Zagreb |
Lui was not merely registered with the championship squad: official match records list him as Mladost’s starting libero in all three sets of both the Croatian Cup final and the Superliga title-clinching match.
Selected Individual Awards
| Year | Competition / Organization | Award |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | AVCA | All-America Honorable Mention |
| 2022 | MPSF | All-MPSF Honorable Mention |
| 2022 | MPSF | All-Tournament Team |
| 2022 | Off the Block | Erik Shoji Award Finalist |
| 2022 | Off the Block | Steve Shondell Award Finalist |
| 2023 | AVCA | All-America Honorable Mention |
| 2023 | MPSF | All-MPSF Second Team |
| 2023 | MPSF | All-Tournament Team |
| 2023 | Off the Block | National Libero of the Week |
Across his Stanford career, Lui was also named MPSF Defensive Player of the Week five times and earned multiple academic honors, including four MPSF All-Academic selections.
Personal Life & Public Profile
Lui is the son of Raymond and Christine Lui and has an older sister, Kayla. Volleyball Canada has credited Kayla with helping introduce him to the sport, while Lui has spoken publicly about the importance of his family’s support throughout his career. Stanford also records one of the more unusual details in his sporting biography: before reaching elite volleyball, he was the 2010 Canadian Junior National Pokémon Champion.
Academically, Lui completed both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford. His undergraduate concentration was in Finance and Decision Analysis with a Data Science minor, while his graduate concentration focused on Technology Engineering. His own biographical material also describes a longstanding interest in psychology, philosophy and well-being.
Lui has also spoken openly about being gay. Volleyball Canada’s retirement feature recounts that he came out to his Stanford teammates in early 2020, and his public work later extended beyond simply discussing his own experience. During his final year at Stanford, he co-founded Cardinal PRIDE, the university’s first LGBTQ+ student-athlete-run club. That work became a meaningful part of his public profile alongside his volleyball career rather than a separate rumor-driven personal-life storyline.
Current Status After Retirement
On October 8, 2026, Lui officially announced the end of his national-team and professional playing career. He retired at age 26 after an eight-season journey through Canada’s national-team pathway, three professional seasons in Europe and an international résumé that reached the Paris Olympics and FIVB World Championship. His final professional campaign with Mladost Zagreb ended with Croatian league and cup titles.
His connection to volleyball has continued through coaching. Volleyball Canada reported at the time of his retirement that Lui was working with youth athletes while studying psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University, with the aim of combining his interest in the human side of performance with his experience in sport. He has also described travel, backpacking and hiking as areas he wants to explore more fully after stepping away from professional competition.
Justin Lui FAQ
Is Justin Lui retired?
Yes. Volleyball Canada announced on October 8, 2026, that Lui was stepping back from the Canadian national team and had also retired from professional volleyball in Europe.
What position did Justin Lui play?
Lui played primarily as a libero. Earlier in his Stanford career he also spent time at setter, including five setter starts during the 2020 season, but libero became his established position in college, professional volleyball and with Canada.
How tall is Justin Lui?
Lui is listed at 178 cm, or 5 feet 10 inches. His official player site also lists a 318 cm spike touch, 304 cm block touch and 77 kg playing weight.
Did Justin Lui play at the Olympics?
Yes. Lui was selected for Canada’s 12-player men’s volleyball roster at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Canada finished 10th in the tournament.
Which professional clubs did Justin Lui play for?
After Stanford, Lui played three seasons in Europe: Vantaa Ducks in Finland in 2023–24, VK Dukla Liberec in Czechia in 2024–25 and HAOK Mladost Zagreb in Croatia in 2025–26. He finished his professional career by winning the Croatian league and cup with Mladost.
References
- Volleyball Canada — Olympian Justin Lui Officially Retires
- Team Canada — Justin Lui Olympic Athlete Profile
- Team Canada — Team Canada’s Paris 2024 Men’s Volleyball Team Unveiled
- Stanford Athletics — Justin Lui, 2023 Men’s Volleyball Profile
- Justin Lui — Key Stats
- Justin Lui — My Volleyball Journey
- Justin Lui — About Me
- CEV — Justin Lui, Mladost Zagreb Player Profile
- Volleyball World — Paris 2024 Men’s Best Diggers Statistics
- Volleyball World — Paris 2024 Men’s Best Receivers Statistics
- Croatian Volleyball Federation — 2026 Croatian Cup Final: HAOK Mladost 3–0 MOK Mursa-Osijek
- Croatian Volleyball Federation — Mladost Wins the 2025–26 Croatian Superliga Championship
- Croatian Competition System — 2026 Croatian Cup Final Match Statistics
- Croatian Competition System — 2026 Superliga Championship-Deciding Match Statistics
- Justin Lui Official Linktree — Instagram and Official Website Directory
