And then, when the Olympic victory was certain, April Ross and Alix Klineman fell into each other’s arms. During the Olympic beach volleyball final against Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar (Australia), the two Americans met on points like two women at the opera ball: careful approach, minimal contact with both hands, fake kiss. It was incredibly hot in Tokyo, 34 degrees in the air and 49 degrees in the sand, every nudge, no matter how tiny, hurts on the skin, so the two of them danced carefully around each other until it was 9:16 p.m., 9:15 p.m. for the Californians – and there couldn’t be a better symbol of how the two found each other.
Ross had already won two Olympic medals: silver in London in 2012 with Jennifer Kessy and bronze five years ago in Rio with Kerri Walsh-Jennings. She then ended her Olympic career, Ross needed a new partner. “It was a targeted search,” said Ross before the games. Finding a partner at beach volleyball is sometimes compared to dating teenagers on the beach in California: you are deeply in love and think you have found a soul mate, a companion for life; and then after a few weeks it’s all over again. “It’s actually like high school,” says Phil Dalhausser, Olympic champion in Beijing in 2008 and again in the round of 16 this year at the age of 41: “You are always on the lookout to see if there isn’t someone who suits you better There are enough people here on the beach in California; it’s like prom. “
Ross, 39, was not in the mood for teenage volatility; she was looking for a partner with whom she could prepare for the Olympics in Tokyo. Something long-term, then, and it turned out that she didn’t find this partner in the sand, but at the country festival Stagecoach. Klineman, 31, had finished her indoor volleyball career and was looking for a partner for the beach. It’s not easy, because comparing hall to beach at this level is like saying that a formidable hockey player could easily win the Stanley Cup in the NHL ice hockey league. And who is so crazy to form a team on the hunt for the Olympic victory with someone who has never played a professional tournament in the sand? A mutual acquaintance introduced them to each other at the festival, and they first sniffed each other like shy teenagers.
Klineman and Ross only lose one set during the tournament
“I saw how good she is – and I knew that otherwise it could only go uphill,” said Ross after the final. “She tore her bum open, she learned everything there was to be learned.” That’s right: there is a bike path in California that leads along the beach from Redondo Beach to Malibu, and you can watch the beach volleyball professionals training while they ride. If you cycled into Hermosa Beach at six in the morning, you saw Klineman in the sand; And whoever came by again at sunset around eight o’clock in the evening saw: It is still there or is already back, and had it not played that afternoon too? Well, Klineman lives a few steps away from the sand, so she can go to the office at any time – and that’s exactly what Ross wanted: someone who only thinks about this one goal for four years.
It worked quickly between the two; They won 40 percent of the tournaments they participated in, but only silver at the 2019 World Cup in Hamburg. That led to even more training, until the two harmonized so well as it was now to be admired at the Olympics: That A-Team (because of the first names Alix and April, the actor Mr. T, who had played in the unforgettable series, sent a greeting to the final) lost only one set in the entire tournament; on the way to the final they defeated the German duo Laura Ludwig / Margareta Kozuch, in the semifinals the Swiss Anouk Verge-Depre / Joana Heidrich.
Smile nicely once, please: The Australians (silver), the Swiss (bronze) and the US team pose together.
(Foto: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
Then in the final against the two fearful opponents from Australia, and they had come up with an amazing variant. They served to the taller Klineman what the other opponents had avoided because that leads to the strength of the Americans: Klineman on Ross, she hangs up for her partner, and she beats the ball over the net or dabs it precisely over the block. This trick of the Australians went colossally wrong, they hardly won a point on their own serve. Instead, the Californians showed why they go so well together: Ross is a dangerous server, she managed four aces in the final and repeatedly put the Australians under pressure with openings of up to 72 km / h. Klineman, one of the best block players, was waiting on the net and positioned himself for the second leg.
“We knew that this game would be decided by points on your own serve,” said Ross: “We risked a lot there, but it was worth it – like all the sacrifices we have made in the last four years, by the way.” After silver and bronze, Ross has finally also won this Olympic gold medal. Sometimes, when you dance with teenagers, you meet your partner for life. Ross had said during the Olympics that she could imagine competing again in Paris – it’s only three years, and then, as she joked, she would only be 44 years old. All she wanted to do was play with Alix Klineman, she said, and she nodded happily. Then they left the stadium in Tokyo, arm in arm, by the way, wrapped in a US flag, still 33 degrees.
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