beach volleyball olympic games tokyo 2020

Beach volleyball olympic games tokyo 2020 professional#

The pair made their debut in January 2018. I took all that into account, and it all held up.” “To take such a risk for herself, I knew that was going to be a huge motivating factor. “I knew her story, she was coming out to the beach to make the Olympics,” Ross said. NCAA Beach Volleyball Championships have a Southern California vibe She returned to the sport in June 2014.Īfter the disappointment of getting cut from Team USA, Klineman saw beach as her last chance to fulfill her childhood dream of playing in the Olympics. An arbitration later confirmed the suspension but also accepted Klineman’s explanation that she had inadvertently ingested the prohibited substance from her mother’s DHEA supplements that had been mixed with her own vitamins.

Beach volleyball olympic games tokyo 2020 professional#

Imoco Volly, the professional team she played for in Italy, terminated her contract. Anti-Doping Agency in 2013 after testing positive for an androgenic anabolic steroid or its precursors. Klineman was suspended for 13 months by the U.S. The pair split in 2017 and Ross initially teamed with Lauren Fendrick before switching to Klineman later that same year. With Jennifer Kessy, Ross won the 2009 FIVB world championship and reached the Olympic beach final in London in 2012, losing to May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings in straight sets.įour years later, Ross was back at the Olympics, earning the bronze medal with Walsh Jennings. Her daughter went on to lead the Trojans to consecutive NCAA titles. She was 10 when Margie was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer and her mother would be a daily inspiration for Ross during her career at Newport Harbor High, where she was also a national high school player of the year and played volleyball and basketball with future Olympic champion rower Esther Lofgren, and at USC. Like Klineman, the former Mira Costa High national prep player of the year and All-American at Stanford, Ross first made a name for herself indoors. “It just felt like he gave us his blessing and it was awesome and everybody lost their cool about it.” It just completed everything for the ‘A Team,’” Ross said. “So when we knew he was following along and he tweeted us, it was just OK, we’re done. T, the star of the 1980s NBC action series.

Their success caught the attention of another A-Teamer, Mr. That’s been a huge motivating factor, just to work my hardest every day and to not let her regret her decision.”Īlong the way, they dubbed themselves the “A Team” a play on their first names. She knew we might be playing in a lot of country quota and qualifiers for a long time. I had zero (Olympic qualifying) points when I came out onto the beach, and she took me as her partner and we had to play in the country quota qualifying. “Ever since we became partners, there’s been a big feeling of not wanting to let her down,” Klineman said. indoor team prior to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The triumph also validated Ross’ decision to take a chance on Klineman, who switched to beach volleyball in 2017 after being one of the last players cut from the U.S. So just grateful, grateful that we were able to pull this off.” “The rest of the world is so good at beach volleyball right now and so many different countries are putting a lot of resources into their beach volleyball teams and the level is ridiculously high. “I thought about that, the tradition that the USA has in beach volleyball and wanting to uphold that tradition and it was easy,” Ross said. women have won four of the last five Olympic beach titles, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings claiming the gold medal at the 2004, 20 Games. With the South Bay-based pair’s victory, U.S. “It’s kind of a fairytale story like, ‘oh, I’m going at 39 to try and get my gold medal’, and the fact that it actually happened feels so special and surreal.” “I can’t fathom that it worked out the way it did,” Ross said.