OURO!

📸: Beach Volleyball World

To be completely transparent, neither of us loved our last trip to Itapema, Brazil last year. We could never find food, we were jet lagged, we had no clue how international tournaments worked and overall, we were overwhelmed. This time around, we loved Brazil! Uberlandia is top-notch! The facility was great, the fans were very engaged, and we walked away with a gold medal!

We started off the trip on a strong note... We were late to the airport due to the traffic from not one but two car accidents. The woman at Delta Airlines repeatedly reminded us that we were late. Then they couldn’t find our reservation confirmation number so we had to wait on hold with Delta assistance for an extended period of time! As we waited, Janet, continued to remind us that this was all our fault because we were late and we were lucky to have had the delay or we would be out of luck, as if we didn’t already realize this ourselves. After we finally got ahold of someone with Delta assistance, we checked our bags and were off to the lounge. We were hangry and scooped up some food and filled our waters in record time for the long travel day ahead.

As I previously mentioned we were delayed out of New Orleans so we had to book it through the Atlanta airport when we landed at Concourse A. Of course, our connection was in Concourse F for international flights which was on the complete opposite side of the airport. We are world travelers/airport track stars at this point. Our ability to drag a suitcase and speed walk with a backpack full of water bottles to stay hydrated is unmatched!

We had a treacherously long 8.5-hour flight to Brazil and landed at 5:15 am. Neither of us got much sleep on the flight and we had to force ourselves awake for the rest of the day! GRU might have topped our list as the worst airport. We couldn’t find our luggage at our designated luggage belt, because it was delivered to the “oversized luggage area”. Luckily, Kristen remembered from last year when everyone else was leaving with their bags and our luggage was nowhere to be found. Then we trucked across the airport to try and find security, when we finally found it, we attempted to get through and our boarding passes would not scan. We don’t know much Portuguese but we understood we were not getting in when a big fat ‘X’ popped up on the screen and the TSA individuals started pointing at us and speaking Portuguese… there was a problem. We were sent on a rat race for over an hour to multiple check-in desks across the entire airport and then back to security to find out that our boarding passes still would not scan. After numerous google translate conversations failed, we took matters into our own hands and had them hand-scan our boarding passes to get through.

The GRU lounge had questionable food. As in, the “eggs” were definitely not eggs, they were worse than the hotel fake eggs. Personally, I was so sad to see that everything was made with cheese and I mean everything! However, when we walked into the room that had bed-couches for us to lay down horizontally and lactose-free milk it made the no-sleep day much better. My eyes were twitching from tiredness and I was dozing in and out during the last haul. Our final one-hour flight to Uberlandia was full of exhausted beach volleyball players. We had completed our 17.5-hour travel day, we collected our luggage and hopped on the tournament’s airport transportation. Kristen manifested an early check-in for a much-needed shower and we put our swollen legs up, stretched, and foam rolled. I laid down in bed and when Nuss came out of the shower she abruptly woke me up and forced me awake as I was accidentally “resting” my eyes. We walked to the grocery store, via a police escort when we couldn’t find our own way. They tried to give us directions in Portuguese, but our confused faces gave it away that it made no sense to us. The female police officer personally walked us through the mall, out the door, and around the corner to the nearest grocery store. Boy did we know how to make a scene…

We found some lunch, visited our USA athletic trainers for a flush, and got a lift in. We have come so far from our last trip to Brazil about one year ago. Last year we took a nap and didn’t move because we were too tired. This year we were just as exhausted but knew not to nap and we felt much better after lifting and moving around. At 8 pm after a pita, peanut butter protein, and banana dinner in our hotel room we allowed our bodies to finally pass out. At 8:01 I was out like a light and slept for 12 straight hours and we woke up and were ready to attack the day!

We had breakfast with USA men’s team Tri and Chaim – a breakfast buffet filled with pastries and bread. All of which we had to pass up each and every day! Then we made our way to Praia Clube. This venue was a compound! I would highly suggest googling it! The place was an athlete’s dream. When we arrived, it was a late Tuesday morning and every pickleball sand court was full! Every sport you could imagine was available and we found out the sports provided at the complex changed every 3 months for the members. After we explored a bit, we had lunch at a Brazilian steakhouse where we played food roulette and guessed what they were cutting off the stick to put on our plate.

We made our way back to the facility later that day to train with the Swiss team and their coach. We had a solid practice and went back to the hotel for a shower, dinner, work, and bed. We woke up at 8 am to get used to the early morning playing schedule this weekend. We had a practice at 10 am with ourselves to move and get some last-minute touches. Kristen, the food chronicle founder, was brilliant and asked a local for a lunch recommendation. Acai da Terra was her choice and she was spot on! The acai bowls and sandwiches were delicious! We definitely visited another 4/5 times. Kristen vlogged while I watched hours of volleyball. We went to bed very early to get ready for our early morning match on Thursday.

We were up earlier than expected, say 3 am because someone thought construction at that time was a good idea. Neither Kristen or I was thrilled when we woke up to our 5:50am alarm. We got some breakfast and went to the courts but ultimately lost to Ana Patricia and Duda in straight sets. We were slowly improving. The small details that we had been focusing on in training were paying off but we still have so much to fix. It takes time. We tried to take a step back and realize that. We had to rehydrate, recoup, and reenergize because we had a German match at 4 pm.

Right before our 4 pm match, a friend of mine from the good ole indoor days reached out about her match that she had at the same venue the next night. She came to watch our game against the Germans and she gave us wristbands for her semi-final match. Throughout the warmup and our match, the rain started and stopped at least 6-7 times. It just couldn’t decide if it wanted to hang out at the beach or not. Despite the finicky weather, we came out firing on all cylinders against the Germans and we were 1-1 moving into day 2 of pool play. 5 minutes after our game, there was a complete downpour and we were so happy we finished the match in 2 sets.

Day 2 began our international AVP tour where we matched up against Americans for 3 of the next 4 rounds of play, first up, Flint and Scoles. Nuss was just on fire, if you don’t believe me, go watch the replay! Someone even asked if she had wings! Yes, yes she does… she has butterfly wings continuously lifting/supporting her no matter where we are.

We did some recovery with our trainers and then we went back to the Clube to watch the indoor match. We arrived at the Praia Clube 2 hours before the indoor match and there was a HUGE line outside of the building. We were not looking forward to standing in line, but we loved the passion Brazil shows for volleyball. Luckily, our wristbands allowed us to bypass the line and we were in the gym without waiting! The gym was shaking with noise and people an entire hour before the game even started! It was so loud, so intense, and so fun to be a part of! While we were at the game, we received our round of 12 draw, USA’s Sponcil/Cannon.

We won our second USA matchup of the weekend and moved on to the quarterfinals against the Brazilian duo of Barbara/Carol. We had a finite amount of time before the Brazilian match so we took an Uber in the smallest car possible. Uberlandia has speed bumps every 100 yards on the main roads. Our heads would hit the ceiling each time because they were huge and the drivers wouldn’t slow down in the tiny cars. It was overkill to have that many speed bumps and it definitely didn’t slow people down at all! We made it back to the courts despite the traffic and bruises on our heads from launching into the air each time we hit a bump (not sure if Kristen had the same experience though).

We won a battle against Brazil on center court. We walked into the match and I said to Kristen “you cheer for me, and I'll cheer for you”. That’s about the only support we would receive in Brazil against Brazil! Like I said before, Brazil loves and supports volleyball indoor and beach, but they only support the Brazil team if they were playing another country. We would have a crazy long rally and if we would win you could hear our panting breath. If Barbara/Carol would win the rally the crowd would erupt! Although we were the only happy people that left the stadium, we were moving on to the next International AVP match. Up next, USA round 3! Cheng and Hughes, whom we had yet to beat in the last five matchups. We won, sixth times a charm I guess! We were going to the SHIP later that day to play Australia’s silver medalists, Taliqua and Mariafe!

We love a Championship Sunday! Kristen said it best, “We have two matches either way, might as well win”. We were feeling our bodies, especially with the travel, heat, and strong competition and 6 matches in. We were exhausted but didn’t allow ourselves to give in, we wanted to be there. We fought too hard to be there to not give it every single ounce of energy we had left. We did. We left it all on the court. We battled to push it to 3 sets. We knew it would be a fight to the end, it always is! I trusted Nuss and she trusted me.

Following the match, we were escorted off the court to do interviews and then asked to play a pickup game with one of the locals at the Clube. We had to decline as our legs were Jell-O. We dumped it all into the last battle. We were asked to give away our jerseys, glasses, hat, left big toe, necklace… literally everything we had! I chose to give my one jersey to the hardest working ball boy that tirelessly shagged balls and sprinted to hand us the ball as we would go back to serve.

The ball boys at the event were unmatched. They were sprinting around the court and we were so complimentary, you could tell they loved the game and wanted to be there! Following the match, a man with a Minnesota hat asked for a photo and I asked him if he was a MN fan, and he said he used to live in Minnesota. To which I claimed South Dakota as home and he said he also lived there in a little place called Sioux Falls. What are the chances? In Uberlandia, Brazil to meet someone that also lived in Sioux Falls. Then it gets crazier! A woman from Alabama that lived to New Orleans before moving to Uberlandia followed our matches all weekend. She and her family came and even wore LSU purple! (Quite the feat for a Bama fan to sport purple and gold) I am still mind-blown at the people we are so fortunate to meet on this journey.  

We walked out of the podium celebration covered in champagne, bodies full of aches and pains, and hearts full of happiness. We visited our favorite restaurant and just sat there smiling. No words. Just happiness. We were basking in bliss at least for the night.

We came back to the hotel to shower off the sand and sweat and Kristen just stood in the middle of the room smiling, saying “holy sh*t, I love winning”. We both felt so much better after a nice shower to remove the sticky champagne and sand. “Better” is a relative term at this point!

Sunday night, we were in bed at 7 pm. We were drained and had zero energy to meet up with other players post-tournament. However, we might as well have had a great night out because neither of us could sleep anyway! We tried, but I am convinced, the more you try to fall asleep the less your body allows you to sleep! We both were up from 3-5 am. We tried to watch film and catch up on responding to all the congratulatory messages. The adrenaline rush was still running its course. Our journey back to Louisiana was long! We had three flights, the first was delayed, which lead us to a full-on sprint through Sao Paulo *we get a lot of Airport track practice* and we luckily arrived at the gate at the exact boarding time. 9.5 hours later we landed in Atlanta for a quick layover and back to New Orleans. We will hit the sand with Drew Tuesday afternoon and begin to work with our MASTERMIND of a coach that dedicates countless hours to make us better.

Thank you to everyone that watched. Sorry to anyone that we scared during the matches. We are very thankful for our support system, we felt so much love an entire continent away! Onto the next!

By: Taryn Kloth