THESE LITTLE PIGGIES WENT OUI OUI OUI ALL THE WAY HOME WITH A SILVER MEDAL

Photo By: Volleyball World

About 365 days ago we were our best tourist selves in Paris, we walked for miles every day, and we stopped in nearly every bakery. We saw sites and enjoyed all Paris had to offer. This year, we were on a 7-day mission to get in and play as much volleyball as possible and then jet set to Mexico City for World Championships. To be honest, we were really debating if we wanted to play in this event at the beginning of the year when the schedule came out. It's so hard to tell how much we will play, recover, etc… we are very happy that we decided to play in Paris.

Saturday morning came around and we were putting our finishing touches on our packing with luggage stuffed to the brim for nearly 3.5 weeks on the road. This was international trip #19. Our bag count rose to 5 suitcases. It was definitely a challenge to pack for both events with opposite temperatures. We were walking out the door and I went through the typical mom checklist of the most important items and commonly forgotten items with Kristen. I made it to item #1: passport and Kristen darted into the house. She forgot her ticket to travel the world. I always say, “as long as we have our passport and wallet, we can buy anything else we would happen to forget.”

To give her some grace, she had a lot more to pack with her new video equipment and microphones for us to document our travels. She was researching how to use the new tech and turned into a super nerd with the gadgets. We should have some quality content released soon with the new and improved content capture.

On our first flight to Atlanta, we watched a show, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” on Amazon. It’s definitely a cheesy teen drama show but we were hooked. The night flight, the long haul to Paris we were getting settled into our seats and all Kristen was worried about.., the food menu. As she was verbalizing her disappointment that we didn’t have the menu, a French passenger came up to us and congratulated us on our journey to the Olympics. She wasn’t a volleyball fan but someone else on the flight was talking about us and she overheard them. Moments like these are indescribable! The food cart came out and the menu options were very disappointing, a fish dish and a cheesy risotto. Therefore, I just skipped dinner to get some sleep. I got very little once again and Kristen had no problem. “You aren’t going to like this, but that was the most sleep I’ve had on a plane” -Kristen Nuss. She fits significantly better in the aircraft!

We landed around 2 p.m. and collected all 5 suitcases and 2 backpacks to hop in a car with a man whose sign with Kristen’s name looked fake. We were slightly concerned that he was stealing us however, that didn’t stop us and we got in. To give us a little credit, he had the hotel name, our flight numbers, and all the other information that we turned into FIVB transportation. When we arrived at the hotel, I was exhausted. Unlike Kristen, I didn’t get much sleep and fell asleep during the transportation to the hotel, which Kristen happily recorded to share. As soon as we checked into our room, I searched for caffeine.

We were tired and hungry, and we made it all the way up to our hotel room to find that it wasn’t ready for us. However, we were not willing to move all 5 of our suitcases to another room! We dropped off all the bags in the room and went down to get coffee. Kristen was on a mission to find a way to watch her beloved Saints play. We went to dinner early so Kristen could be back at the hotel to stream the football game. We were so early that we were the only two people eating at the restaurant. The menus didn’t have anything in English and none of the employees spoke English so we had a fun game of guess the food and see what happens! It was a delicious steak, salad, veggie, and French fry spread for two!

As soon as we got back to the room we showered and got ready for bed at 7 pm. Kristen was focused on the Saints game and I was passed out with the score of 17-0. At 3 am both of us woke up and we had a little chat including the fact that the Saints blew the lead, and then we both passed out until 9 am. That was certainly the longest I’ve ever slept in on a trip! Breakfast was delicious! We love a solid hotel breakfast complete with all the tempting croissants, pain au chocolate, muffins, and fresh bread. We started to unpack and get settled when we received a message that the Dubai Elite 16 event in November was canceled. Just like that, we must change our playing schedule once again, change flights, and deal with airline customer service!

We went to the gym to get a post-travel day lift. Then we journeyed through the Issy area of Paris for a fresh baguette and some deli meat from the grocery store to make our own sandwiches. It's always a good time to check our perspective on everything as we were strolling down the streets of Paris with a baguette in hand on Monday afternoon. Our practice shuttle slot approached quickly at 2:40 p.m. and we didn’t get back until 5:40 p.m. with the Parisian traffic. We didn’t do much at practice, it was just us two and we did some activation, and light movement, and added a walk at the end until our shuttle came to pick us up. You can thank Kristen later for any and all good content that comes from us being mic’d up at practice. The practice facility was very interesting, it was surrounded by countless soccer fields, tons of butterflies, and the only bathrooms in sight… gray boxages. We made it to practice and both had to use the bathroom so the court’s employee directed us to the beautiful gray boxages aka porta potties.

We made it back for a quick leg flush with our USA trainers and then off to dinner. Post dinner, we were both wanting the nightly peach that we had been addicted to lately. I cut the peach, opened it, and immediately saw it covered with maggots inside. I was so grossed out that I paused my peach obsession for the foreseeable future!

It was a horrible night of sleep. Luckily, there were three fully functioning coffee machines to get me going. Following our delicious breakfast, we took a stroll and met up with fellow American on the men’s side, Theo Brunner. He has been at this professional beach volleyball career for a while, and he is always full of insights! We are continually trying to find the balance of getting movement but conserving energy to make it through the event feeling our best. Luckily, we were blessed with a trainer, chiropractor, strength coach, and USA beach volleyball director on the trip! We stopped in for our scheduled stretch and adjustment with the staff.

After we were realigned, we hit a couple of bakeries to find a warm baguette and some meat from the local grocery store for another homemade pre-practice sandwich. We shuttled to the venue for a training session with the Swiss team. As we were driving back the Swiss players couldn’t get over how short Kristen was and how tall I was. This all stemmed from a previous pretournament training session in Hamburg where the defenders and the blockers from our team and their team played in a drill together! Neither Kristen nor I think we are very different in height until we see photos or people point it out.

Speaking of drills, picture this. We were in the middle of training with the Swiss coach and he began to explain a drill in broken English. We never fully understand the rules until about halfway through the game and then the light bulb goes off. This time it was finally recorded and you can visually see the bright light shine above our heads! We returned to the hotel to shower and get ready in record-breaking time to jump into an Uber and visit the one and only Eiffel Tower. We brought a takeaway salad and sat on the ground in admiration of the tower that we see each and every day on our phone screens. It was magical, the lights, the vibes, the people, the moment. It was my favorite part of the trip to watch the beautiful tower start to twinkle at dusk!

It was a perfectly planned late night out at the Eiffel Tower to have an off day on Wednesday. We awoke before our alarms and got ready to be tourists for the day! We thought it was fairly simple to buy tickets for the train and get around Paris. I was slightly grossed out about the train at some points, and rightfully so because the day we left we found out about the Parisian bed bug outbreak!

Our first stop was a beautifully decorated Starbucks. I did say that we were tourists for the day so we did hit all the touristy places that came up on our Instagram explore pages. Then we wandered through the confusing streets lined with gorgeous buildings and intricate designs before we found our way to Angelina. It's a café that everyone raves about, specifically for hot chocolate. We had to try it for ourselves, which also meant, we had to wait in line. Unfortunately, we agreed that the cuisine was not worth the wait, but the vat of hot chocolate melted Kristen’s foodie heart.

We were really starting to get too confident in our Parisian train station knowledge. We went 20 minutes in the wrong direction. The train station was very easy to use, however, there were lots of options and one was about to leave so we jumped on it without making sure it was the right one. We were 1 minute too early and went in the opposite direction of the hotel. We had just finished bragging to each other about how simple it was and here we are eating our words and adding 45 minutes to our transportation home. Our goal was to get back to the hotel asap to eat and get some rest before our early morning match on Thursday!

The morning rolled around and we hopped out of bed ready for some more competition. We were bundled up and ready to warmup up. However, our driver had other ideas. We missed our gate to get into Roland Garros and she began to swear in French and say “oh no” on repeat. This caused a bit of worry on our end as we passed the line of cars in the opposite lane that we would have to line up behind to get back around to the venue’s gate. We were about to get out and walk but the sidewalks surrounding the building were all blocked off due to construction and we were stuck. Needless to say, we were a bit late to warmups which started our chaotic start to the tournament.

The last warmup ball I was blocking and turned to set Kristen and sliced my thumb open and blood started streaming out. Kristen had to pee and I had to find a Band-Aid. The ref was trying to hand me the white jerseys with my bloody hand to which I refused. I couldn’t find Kristen or the trainer so I was taken into a back room with a French man who told me he could help me. He gave me a butterfly strip and a band-aid that could cover a massive wound for the small laceration on my thumb. I ran out of the back room and found my trainer to redo the tape job and get on the court. The whole process was a giant disaster and Kristen looked lost waiting for me and was “fake warming up” alone! Pre-match was a giant commotion but we calmed it down to take the 2-0 win against Italy!

We stopped in for a quick lunch before shuttling to the hotel for a shower and a change of clothes before our Australian match-up. I walked into lunch alone while Kristen got treatment between matches and the person at the door explained the food system in French. I asked for English and she spoke louder and faster French, why is that always the reaction? Whenever there is a language barrier people speak louder and faster in the same language that is not understood. I am guilty of this same reaction. We scurried back to the venue and Kristen was so excited to play that she didn’t even look where she was walking nor could she hardly wait for the automatic doors to open. She tripped on the ledge and almost smashed straight into the sliding glass doors in front of all the beach volleyball staff. Not a single person could play it off and everyone in the room began laughing, including myself.

We walked onto the court, without tripping, against the reigning silver medalists from Tokyo for the 100th time. The lighting during the match was so strange with the sun setting, the venue’s roof was open, but still blocked by part of the building. There were definitely points in that match where we both couldn’t see the ball and we just hoped it wouldn’t hit us in the face.   

Following the 2-0 win, a sand-raking volunteer ran to Nuss to request her jersey for his girlfriend. She agreed and began to ask for his name so she could find him to deliver the jersey the following day. He had to repeat his name nearly 5 times and all Kristen and I could make out of the name pronunciation was Max followed by some constants and some noises that sounded like he had to hock a loogie. So, she had to rename him Max for the rest of the tournament.

The next two big events of the day were insane! We were pulled from our conversation with Max to go do an interview with NBC. The poor reporter pulled the short end of the stick when interviewing us because we went on and on about our friendship, journey, barriers, and craziness that has happened. Secondly, do you remember that show on Amazon Kristen and I watched on the way over to Paris? Gavin Casalegno (one of the main characters - google him!) from the TV show skipped some Paris fashion week events and came to the beach volleyball tournament instead. I just had to reach out and thank him for giving beach volleyball some recognition and he responded back! I definitely screamed and couldn’t contain my excitement and scared Kristen to death in the hotel room. Oops, sorry, Kristen!

Our third and final game of pool play, who else? Another American team! We had to win to secure our slot in the quarterfinals for Saturday. After a back-and-forth battle, we pulled out the win. The DJ was the real MVP with my walkout song being “Barbie Girl”, I loved it! It made me smile each time I ran out or went back to serve. The game wasn’t pretty and post-match Kristen was snagged for a “random” drug test that I still believe is not random. She took so long to pee in a cup that we were going to miss our reservation with my family friend from South Dakota who made the trip to Paris to come watch! I left Kristen behind and went back to the hotel for a quick shower and met Paula at Pizzou, a local pizza restaurant, that was recommended to us. It was delicious, as you could infer from my post-tournament interview! We were exhausted after dinner and had to force ourselves awake until the rest of the seeding was complete and we received our game time.

The quarterfinal match arrived quickly! We spent the day at the venue and I was approached by a big beach volleyball fan and yet again called Kristen, but at this point our names were synonymous. We played the one and only Laura Ludwig from Germany in the quarterfinal match, a rematch from Hamburg. She and Kristen are a defensive spectacle and full of energy. There was one play in particular where Kristen jumboed Laura and she responded with a “you bitch”. The most respectful and hilarious response mid-game that gave all of us a laugh.

The semifinal match was next, another rematch against Italy at 9 p.m. We play the same teams over and over. Therefore, there are always different adjustments to make on the fly, and playing a team twice in one tournament is yet another level of difficulty. We had the entire USA staff to help us with treatment, food, warmups, and entertainment with the excess amount of time between matches.

We stepped on the court that was beaming with bright lights and packed with people… every athlete’s dream. We focused on our side, HAD FUN, and that led us to a victory and a ticket to the gold medal match on Sunday! Our NBC friends snagged us for another interview and we stopped to sign autographs and take photos but eventually, we had to be escorted to dinner. It was already 10:30 PM and we had a big game coming up. We even swapped out treatment for some extra sleep! However, neither of us could sleep when our heads hit the pillow. Those late-night games left us wide awake with streams of adrenaline coursing through our bodies. Then at 2 am, there was a loud, and I mean loud noise. It sounded like there were suitcases full of bricks crashing down the steps over and over. Kristen finally had enough of it and called the front desk who apologized for the noise which was said to be cleaning, at 2 a.m. Funny enough, the same exact thing happened to us the night before the finals in Hamburg!

Sunday sunshine came streaming in fast and we were set to play Brazil in the finals match at 3 pm. We spent the morning packing and repacking when the lovely notification that our flight to Mexico City would leave in less than 24 hours. We had a lot to accomplish before getting on that flight!

Location: Du Pain De Idees

We got stomped in game 1. We were aced 8 times and you just can’t win that way, especially against the #1 team in the world. In game 2, we regrouped and willed our way into a 3rd set. We lost in a heartbreaker. A random scramble play to lose 13-15 in the third. I have replayed the point in my head over and over again. After those close matches, each point that was missed in a split-second decision haunts me. We went to the post-match interview and realized that it was over and there was nothing we could do about it. This added yet another level of anger to push ourselves even further and we went to the podium for the ceremony. We walked away with a silver medal, flowers, and a bag of Parisian chocolate!

We made it back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants from last year in Paris. As soon as I got out of the shower I was hit, the adrenaline was gone, my body was feeling the stress I put it under, and I couldn’t even get out of bed to go get dinner with everyone. Kristen went with the USA staff while I sat in the hotel room. When she came back, we had a nice chat as teammates, best friends, and each other's biggest hype woman. This is a marathon, with lots of ups and downs but luckily, we have each other to lean on. The last thing on the agenda for Paris, go to my favorite bakery and get the pastry I’ve been waiting 365 days to eat again!

Kristen was a trooper on Monday morning, she got up early with me to Uber 45 minutes to the bakery and 55 minutes back for my chocolate and pistachio escargot pastry! We were exhausted but she knew this was my favorite! It didn’t disappoint! It did, however, cause us to be late for the shuttle to the airport. The traffic in Paris was horrendous and instead of driving with hands at 10 and 2, they must be taught to drive with hands on 6 and horn!

Paris, you were magical. We can’t wait to see you again!  

By: Taryn Kloth