WORLD CHAMPS BRONZE

2 weeks in Mexico… stomach issues, scary bangs, lots of lattes, tons of volleyball and more!

Our first World Championships kicked off in true Kristen and Taryn style… an unfortunate travel day. Our 11-hour flight from Paris to Mexico City felt like an eternity and it did not start off well… We have inflatable footrests that we have used on all previous international flights this year and it really is a game changer; however, the not-so-lovely French flight attendant came over and said we were not permitted to have them on an Air France flight (we have used them 4 times already on an Air France flight but okay). We made it to MEX and found the transportation people from the event. He proceeded to tell us that the bus would be arriving in 15-20 minutes, so Taryn went off to find food, water, and a bathroom while I watched our luggage. After Taryn returned, I took my turn to go to the restroom that was located in Guam and upon my return I did not see any of the other volleyball people. All I saw was Taryn looking at me and saying, “they left and idk where they went.” We frantically started speed walking through the airport with all 5 rolling bags and our backpacks. We had absolutely no idea where everyone went, so we phoned a friend, Besti Flint. She started to try and explain the confusing route they took from memory. After 10 minutes of walking in circles, Mariafe’s husband came to our rescue by coming to us in the airport and leading us the right way, and at last we were off on the 2 hour and 45 minutes bus ride to Huamantla. I think everyone is in agreement that the worst part of these travel days for beach volleyball is landing at an airport and then having to hop on another long car/bus/train to get to the designated area. Throughout the bus ride we were in communication with one of the USA providers, Heather. She was going to hop on the bus when we stopped at her location to provide us treatment since our bodies felt terrible.

After dozing in and out of sleep, picking up Heather, and driving through some sketchy parts of Mexico we finally pulled up to our hotel around 10:45pm (we had officially been up for 24hours). We unloaded all our bags from the bus and struggled to pull them up the stairs to the hotel lobby. The reception desk did not speak much English but after about 10 minutes we had a room key in our hand but had no idea if we could leave or where to go. The tournament organizers finally came in and said the shuttle is here… we had just gotten off the shuttle. We had to lug all our bags back on to the bus we had just unloaded them from and drive 5 minutes up the road to our bungalow which was surrounded by other bungalows but literally in the middle of nowhere. We had no cell service and three of us girls were surrounded by about 5 Mexican men with large guns who were escorting us to our room. We were so utterly confused, and our guards were up. We pulled up to H5, unlocked the door, all shuffled in quickly and then immediately closed the door. The room was spacious with a brick wall separating the two beds. We checked the windows to make sure they were locked and then we tried for a solid 3 minutes to figure out where the key was to lock the door… the key was left in the lock on the outside of the door, but the windows were secured haha

Taryn showered and I got treatment and then we flipped. By this point it was midnight and no Ubers were around to take Heather back to her hotel room that was 40 minutes. We also were not going to let her Uber back by herself at that time of night and in our location, so we had a sleepover. Taryn and I shared a bed and Heather slept in the other one… Welcome to Mexico.

Tuesday

All of us awoke around 6:45am to growling tummies since we had been surviving on protein bars the day prior. We made the 0.4 mile walk to the main hotel lobby where the restaurant was located and enjoyed our first Mexican breakfast.

Priority number 1 for the day was finding water so we ventured to the gas station OXXO that was a 7-minute walk away. However, there was no sidewalk, so we were just walking along the disheveled gravel, dirt and grass. I hung up the phone with my mom while Taryn was still on Facetime with hers disusing the tales of the night before when all of a sudden, a loud, heart stopping bang, bang happened. We both franticly looked at each other wondering if we had just heard gunshots, fireworks or a transformer exploding. We later find out from the organizers that it was fireworks or pyrotechnics training happening nearby. These load explosions happened just about every other hour and sometimes in the mornings anywhere from 5 to 6am… just lovely.

We had a nice zoom with Larry Widman, our sports psychologist, to recap Paris and also get primed for our biggest tournament as a pair. Highly recommend all athletes incorporating someone like Larry into your team. He provides us with important questions individually and for our team that we would not have done so on our own. After the zoom finished, we headed to pick up our credentials, tournament gifts, and uniforms. (We got a lot of questions about this – organizers tried to make World Champs very similar to the Olympics. In the Olympics, you can have your tops made by your apparel sponsor or whoever you want to make your tops. So, that is why you were seeing some teams with different uniforms. We do not have an apparel sponsor yet so we just asked the tournament to make ours.)

Some logistics of the event… there were 4 playing venues/courts in three different cities – Tlaxcala, Apizaco, & Huamantla. Tlaxcala and Apizaco were about a 15-minute bus ride from each other but Huamantla was a 50-hour bus ride from Tlaxcala and 45 minutes from Apizaco. We were located in Huamantla for pool play which felt like we were in Guam compared to everyone else. Also, our hotel Hacienda Soltepec was a 15-minute drive from the playing venue and away from the city. Our “bungalow” was super cute and cozy but it had VERY spotty Wi-Fi and was a 5-10minute walk from the main part of the hotel where all meals and good Wi-Fi were, so let’s just say that walk got old fast.

The tournament was not providing transportation between the cities until the tournament officially started on Friday, so since it was Tuesday, we had to get an Uber to take us to Tlaxcala to see the USA chiropractor David Lee. After, we got to walk around the Tlaxcala area a little bit. We checked out some cute little stores and even bought some perfume and jewelry. We were still exhausted from the Paris tournament and travel, so the shopping around did not last long. Once we got back to our bungalow, we showered and made the walk to the hotel restaurant of which was our 3rd time eating at for the day. I obviously posted a picture of what I ate on my story and shortly after Alex Ranghieri commented saying we were not supposed to eat the beef. Oops. It was already in my stomach.

Wednesday

Our first day of deciding to do some physical activity. We hit breakfast like usual after waking up around 6am to the loud “bang, bang” like previously stated and then headed to the gym for our normal pre-tourney leg day. It is typically very light and not super exerting at all but when you are at 8,000ft + elevation everything is a little harder. We found our heart rates getting up wayyyy more than usual which was slightly concerning. This was a nice prequel for practice that evening. The tournament scheduled us a “familiarization” training in the bullring that we would be competing in at 8:30pm (we had been asleep at 9pm the night before), so before training we decided to get dinner from Restaurant Bar de Cantera located near the venue. I guess Taryn was feeling excited after she crushed the food ordering in Spanish, because she turned that restaurant pretty much into her own karaoke bar. She was absolutely jamming to all the 2000s throwbacks that they were playing. After T finished her jam sesh, it was time for our first training. We weren’t going to do anything crazy. Just some light movement and serve receive were on the agenda, but by looking at us you would have thought we were running a marathon… we were gassed. Both of us agreed that it felt like someone was sitting on top of our lungs not allowing air in. To say we were concerned would have been an understatement.

Thursday

At this point our morning routine was just spot on… breakfast around 8:45, hit the coffee shop at 9, do some stuff on the computer since there was good Wi-Fi, and then make it back to our bungalow around 10:30/11. We had our first practice with another team Cannon/Kraft around 1 which provided us with our first opportunity to see what playing a match would feel like at elevation. The elevation was good for serve receive because at high altitude the balls do not move as much. They will just carry long but they never really drop which is nice for serve receive. However, it is not nice for the lungs and getting oxygen into the body. There was one very long rally where I legit thought I was going to pass out from lack of oxygen. I have never been happier that another team served Taryn instead of me than in that next play. After, we were texting Drew and Mary freaking out a little bit to which of course Drew was the calm individual he is and responded, “you will be fine once you get into actual play.” T and I were skeptical, but we trusted his words.

For the first time at World Championships there was an Opening Ceremony. It was highly encouraged for athletes to go but it was not required so we went back and forth on it. It was going to be in Tlaxcala which was about an hour bus ride away for us. There was also a 100% chance of rain, but in the newsletter, they said there would be local chefs making us authentic food so that sold me. I wish we would have listened to Taryn and not gone. The “food” was small little tasting items that were not great and had no protein, we had to sit around for about 2 hours, and it also was raining pretty good when we finally got to walk outside (luckily USA was last because of alphabetical order). It was a great idea for Mexico to try and simulate an opening ceremony, but we definitely would not have gone if we would have knowns that’s what it would have been.

Friday

Our final tune up before the tourney started was scheduled for 3 o’clock. We took the shuttle over early so we could hit a lunch spot around the training courts. Duda and AP’s coach was on the shuttle with us, so we were asking him questions about the upcoming tournament in Brazil since there is not much info about it available yet. He helped us answer some questions and then he started asking us questions, like if “swamp people” was where we trained and if we see gators. Love that Swamp People is the image that everyone in Louisiana gets… they really did us dirty. After clarifying that we do not train with gators we headed to lunch at Saborio 2 Taqueria Restaurante where we enjoyed some delicious tacos and tostados. I really think I could eat Mexican food all the time if I had to, however, probably not the best meal to eat before running around in a bathing suit. We were both burping for our entire 30-minute practice.

Saturday

FINALLY, gameday. Our first match against Japan was not until 4:30pm so we had the day to do our normal routine. We got a text from Cannon asking if we felt the earthquake last night. I responded back with “What earthquake?”, so that answered that question, but apparently at 11pm the night prior we were in an earthquake. That would be a first for me… little sad I slept through it. We decided to hit the gym around noon and do some peppering just to get the heart rate up a little before we would head to the warmup courts. Sitting around waiting day after day for the match to finally come around was weighing on us. We both had a ton of nerves going into that match… the altitude, first World Champs, being the #2 seed with high expectations and to top it off Taryn’s tummy was not feeling great. That entire first match all I could think about was breathing. I couldn’t celebrate because I needed to conserve all oxygen remaining. Taryn and I had an understanding… we were not going to speak to each other because at the time I thought it was just because we needed to worry about breathing. Little did I know Taryn was also concerned about keeping more than oxygen inside of her. We learned after the match that other USA athletes were experiencing the same issues as Taryn… here comes cuz Jassy to the rescue. Jasmine, her mom, and Taryn’s dad Mike got into town this day so later that evening I hoped in Jasmine’s rental car and headed to the nearest grocery store. We got all the usual stomach issue essentials… bread, peanut butter, crackers, Pedialyte, and Gatorade. I also just had a fun time seeing a Mexican grocery store. It’s always so fun to see the differences in stores from country to country.

Sunday

This day we met a new friend in the coffee shop who plays for Morocco, and now we have a new country we want to visit. It’s crazy that we get to meet all these people from all over the world and hear their stories and what they do.

We got on the 4 o’clock shuttle to hit the warmup courts at 4:30 for our match against Lithuania. The warmup court was about a 5-minute drive to the bullring so the tournament would tell us it was time to go, and each team would hop in a car. It ran smoothly for our Japan game but not so much for the Lithuania match. They could not find one of the drivers and the car was locked. The two Lithuania players and their two coaches were all loaded up in their car, but we were stuck outside our car with a large crowd of people coming up and asking to sign autographs and take pictures. After 5 minutes of waiting, Sean, USAV director, said to just put the players in one car so we could get to the venue. Everyone agreed, so Lithuania’s coaches got out and Taryn and I hoped in with our opponents. I was sitting thigh to thigh with the defender who we were about to compete against… kind of uncomfy. Both teams were eager to exit the vehicle.

This game went a little smother for us even though the scores may say otherwise with the small hiccup only being Taryn getting hit with a drug test after this match. She can tell you how that went.

Monday

This was our first morning where we had some visitors join us for coffee and what would continue for the rest of the tournament… Jasmine and Mike enjoyed coffee with us. It was nice getting to chat with them about random things to take our minds off volleyball for a little bit, especially since we had a big match against Brazil later that afternoon. Whoever won would claim the pool and lucky for us, we saved our best volleyball for that game coming away with a straight set victory.

Later that evening we went to Mike’s room to watch Taryn’s half-sister Lauryn win her high school game before heading to dinner with the crew. Thankfully, we had our translators Jasmine and Llony with us to help with the ordering of food; however, it still took us a solid 15 minutes to get the order right since there was a lot of going back and forth between Spanish and English.

The playoff brackets were not slated to come out until 30 minutes after the last pool play match finished… it finished at 11pm (we had been sleeping by 9). This put a nice little wrench in our sleep. We had to stay up because we did not know if we were going to have to wake up and pack all our bags up to move to a new location and we also had to schedule a practice at the new location if that were to happen. At 11:45pm we found out that our new home would be Tlaxcala, so a practice slot was booked for 3:30pm in the new bullring and the thoughts of packing up everything was on our minds while trying to get some rest.

Tuesday

Reorganizing all our stuff from the past two weeks was difficult. We had piles of “clean”, “semi-clean”, “dirty” and “very dirty” clothes. 3 weeks on the road is hard. A shuttle was supposed to pick us up at 11am to take everyone to Tlaxcala but it did not arrive until 12:30. We decided on the bus that I would unload the bags so Taryn could run ahead and be the first person to get to the front desk. Our plan worked, we got a room immediately, however, when walking in we realized we were definitely spoiled in our bungalow. The new room had no fridge or microwave, no AC, and just looked way grungier. After some unpacking, we headed out in search of our new playing arena… another bullring (how crazy that we got to play in 2 bullrings). After a light serve and pass we hit Suculenta Bowls which is the place that everyone in Tlaxcala kept posting about. We enjoyed an acai bowl and Taryn even got a donut for her half birthday (by mistake).

In the meantime, Mike, Jasmine and Llony were trying to figure out where they would be staying since there were not many hotel rooms available around the area. They eventually found a spot for a whopping $47/night and they came to tell us all about how terrible the place was, but to get into our hotel you had to have a credential so a man with a large gun stopped them while they tried to plead their case. We enjoyed listening to their Mexico adventures!

Wednesday

We finally both slept past 7 o’clock since our new hotel room stayed pretty dark. We agreed that it felt like a completely new tournament was about to begin and it kind of was, but this time single elimination. This is when the tournament got real real and the pressure magnified. We weren’t even really sure where the warmup court was since the area was all new to us but we thankfully saw volleyballs in the air so we followed that key sign. We started our warmups an hour before like we always do and about 15 minutes in, I have to use the restroom like clockwork. I asked where the restrooms were, and the lady navigated me and then also gave me a small amount of toilet paper to take with me that was slightly damp from the rainfall of last night. Gotta love playing in Mexico! Warmups were done and just like in Huamantla we were transported to the venue but this time it was a golf cart instead of a car, so I was seated in the front and Taryn was standing up in the back as we were driving through all the fans trying to take pictures of us on the golf cart.

We started off our round of 32 match with some clear jitters, but we were able to pull out the tight contested set and go on to win in 2. After the match, we spent a solid 15 minutes signing autographs and taking selfies with people who were in the bullring. It got to the point where we had to stop because our arms were hurting. It was also after this match that the stomach issues Taryn was experiencing earlier finally hit me, so Taryn introduced me to her good friend Pepto and he quickly became my best friend too. After a some time I started to feel better so we hit a nearby Italian restaurant with our crew and enjoyed an evening together before the toilet started calling my name..TMI… sorry.

Thursday

Nothing significant happened this day except for us winning our round of 16 game against some Brazilian legends Agatha and Rebecca and then getting dinner right after the match at Brindisi, which would become our place for the rest of the tournament. Best guacamole we had in Mexico.

Friday

We hit Cafe Uno Uno for our usual latte with the crew and then went back to lunch at Brindisi. While there I had to use the restroom, so I walked into the tiny little door space. I immediately had to duck because there was a shelf above the toilet that was holding the toilet paper, napkins and soap. It is in these moments where I am thinking to myself, “how in the heck did Taryn fit in here.” I walked back to the table laughing and asked Taryn about what I was thinking with her fitting inside. She replied saying she had to sit on the toilet sideways because her legs wouldn’t fit… guess it’s nice being short sometimes.

Brindisi had a glass case with delicious looking pastries, and one was a spiral croissant that Taryn has been absolutely obsessed with so we hadddd to get it. It provided us fuel for what was to be a battle against the Swiss team of Huberli/Brunner in the quarterfinals. This quarterfinal game was our first taste of a full, high-energy bullring, and it was incredible. Playing in a packed stadium like that is so good for our sport, and we are so glad that we got to be a part of it.

After the game we were getting treatment from the USA providers. Scott, who was working on Taryn, said, “did you hear them announce you as the Barbie of beach volleyball?”. I have never seen Taryn more excited. She flipped over on the table with the biggest smile on her face yelling with excitement, “what??? No way??!!”. Note: If you want to make Taryn happy, call her Barbie or just get her pink things. While we were getting treatment our crew of Jasmine and Mike were ordering us food and then hand delivered it to us at our hotel. After expressing a lot of gratitude, we took it to our room to enjoy, showered, and tried to slow the heart rate down for some sleep.

Saturday

We were in route to our Cafe Uno Uno coffee when we stumbled into a girl named Monica. She was so speechless and excited to see us that she started to cry. I did not know what to do, but luckily Taryn came to the rescue and gave her a hug. We took a picture with her and then headed to the café just in amazement that someone shed tears because they met us…crazy.

After coffee, Llony was determined to do some bargain shopping for us to get some coffee mugs that we had been eyeing. She crushed it and we walked back to our hotel with the cheapest mugs in town. While in the hotel room I was scrolling through Instagram and stumbled upon a direct message from someone talking about the term “chaparrita”. I obviously had to look up the word immediately since that is what I was being called by the fans. I found out it basically means short girl in Mexican slang which is hilarious. It was pretty wild to walk around the town and have numerous people start chanting chaparrita and clapping with large smiles on their faces at me. Pretty surreal and I am so thankful for the fans who supported us all tournament long!

If you made it this far, I am sure you are aware we lost in the semis. We were mad, angry, broken, upset, etc but we had to go to sleep and play for bronze the next day.

Sunday

We both rolled out of bed with many aches and pains but that had to be put aside because we were determined to walk away with some hardware. After we lost the first set all I could think was, “we did not make it all the way to Sunday to walk away empty handed.” Drew messaged us after the game, “16-18 was a great time to start doing your thing.” We really did flip a switch at this point – we pulled it out 21-19 and then went on to win 15-8. Bronze medal at our first World Championships!

What did we do to celebrate?? We went back to Brindisi for some guac, pizza, a ham baguette, and a margarita. We did not partake but we bought a round of tequila shots for Trev and Theo and crew since they also had a wonderful tournament. We went back and enjoyed the podium festivities before hitting the churro place that we had been smelling all weekend long. We tried Nutella, chocolate and plain (Nutella was the best). We then hit a restaurant bar that had cards and games so we played card games with the crew before the USAV staff joined us for the rest of the night. We had a 5am flight Monday so our shuttle to the airport was picking us up at 1am. We figured we were not going to be able to sleep that night anyway so why not just get home earlier. We kind of regretted that in the moment… the two hour bus ride to the airport felt like an eternity; however, it was way less exciting than last time we were transported to a Mexico airport so we were happy.