ON TOP OF THE PODIUM - ESPINHO E16
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Yes, we really do have beaches in Michigan!
We did it! We made it through Olympic Qualification which started in January ’23 (there are still two events in Poland & Czech Republic which we decided not to compete in) and ends on June 9, 2024. It has been one of the biggest and longest roller coasters and turn of events. We ended our qualification with a Gold Medal.
This weekend started with a quick turnaround from the AVP in Huntington Beach, California which ended on May 19 and we were on a flight to Portugal on May 20 bright and early. We landed in Madrid and had a 3-hour layover, which Kristen used to her advantage and passed out since neither one of us had a wink of sleep.
3 flights later we finally made it to Porto, Portugal. We were absolutely exhausted from the tournament and the lack of sleep. Luckily, Esphino was a quick 30-minute drive and we checked
into our new home for the week.
Kristen post 1 hour nap in Madrid airport.
*Yet, another tournament location where we don’t pronounce the city correctly until we arrive. Esphino, Portugal is said “sh-peen-yo” & it was a beautiful, little, and very windy beach town! We (happily!) didn’t get the chance to explore Portugal much with our late arrival and rigorous volleyball schedule!
The ability to travel this much and this far is absolutely amazing… but it certainly takes a toll! We were so excited to roll up to our hotel and find our new address for the week switched from hotel room 831 to 330. We dropped off our bags and went to practice with the Austrian sisters 3 hours after landing in Portugal. It was another rough turnaround from a full tournament, 3 flights, a ball switch (FIVB uses the Mikasa and AVP uses the Wilson and the balls are very different), and then right into practice in deep sand and lots of wind on the beach. I will let you guess how well the training went….
Post training
Post practice – our day continued on and we scheduled an interview with NBC at 7 pm that night. We had wet hair and “we are exhausted” written all over our faces. We pulled it together to answer the questions accurately about our journey that started in 2020. Each and every interview reminds me of how far we have come. Right after the zoom ended and our heads hit the pillow we were out! The fastest I’ve ever fallen asleep.
We arrived significantly later than we normal do for international trips. We only had Wednesday to pull ourselves together and get ready for competition on Thursday morning! We had a 30 minute “practice”, where we just tried to get as many passing/serving reps to get readjusted to the Mikasa volleyball. Following practice, we went straight to treatment and as I was laying there in discomfort and the trainer was repeatedly saying “ohhhhh that’s not good” or “wow that’s tight” all of which I could feel without her telling me. Kristen was the exact same way but we had to get over it and play on. But the physio’s sound effects made it seem like I was a complete mess.
On Thursday morning, we wandered on to the beach for the noon match and it was so incredibly windy. It was almost a joke to watch all of us professional beach volleyball players hardly be able to pepper together without the wind taking the ball. As we were warming up, there were multiple people who came up to us from all over the world that notified us that they came to the tournament specifically to watch us. We are so blown away by those comments! Beach volleyball may not be the most popular sport but there are so many dedicated fans who get up at all hours of the night to watch in real time. Our first match, we pulled off a crazy point deficit and took the W in 2 sets against Brazil to begin pool play.
Game #2 of the day against the Netherlands at 5 pm on the beach was in the top 5 windiest beach volleyball we have ever played. While we were warming up, we would set the ball and it would fly backwards about 3-5 feet. We walked into the match and knew there would be a lot of craziness. It was no longer beach volleyball; we were in a windball match. As the ball was flying around more we are trying to compensate and contorted ourselves to try to keep the little ball in the big box. In the end, we dropped the 3rd set and had to live with the fact that we didn’t control the ball in the wind as well.
That night in the hotel room both of us were tossing and turning before we had some melatonin at 1 am. Luckily, we didn’t have to play until 5 pm the next day. However, we had to wait around all day and then have a match that night and perform to cap off the pool play against the home team. Post-match against the Portuguese we were surrounded by 3 Portuguese speaking drug testing representatives. Who was the lucky winner this tournament?
USA providers for this trip who keep us feeling as best as possible all tournament! Super thankful!
Both of us! I naturally had to pee immediately and I was in and out of that place in 15 minutes, meanwhile Kristen was there for a solid 2 hours to get her 90 ml minimum. Kristen was struggling to finish the test she jokingly asked the USA staff if they could push pee out of her. I don’t think the drug testing people thought it was that entertaining.
We stayed up just long enough to see our draw for the round of 12 and when we would have to get up! Luckily, we were given the 9 am game instead of the 8 am. An additional hour of sleep in the morning at events is as good as gold! We were up against the Swiss; this time it was the other Swiss sister who is in a tight competition for an Olympic spot. Our fellow USA beach national team member was THE BEST fill in coach. He came out to each and every game, even in the early morning when it was cold and breezy to warm us up! Truly selfless, thank you Theo.
Post Swiss win… we were matched up with the team that has beaten us the last 9 times, Brazil’s Duda and AP. The amount of people who were excited for this match up for the 10th time… countless.
We were up early for the round of 12 match against the Swiss and our sleeping for the last week and a half had been so wacky from the time zones so Kristen took a quick cat nap and as soon as that alarm made its first ding…. Kristen was on her feet and dancing, which was a great sign, Little did I know she also texted her mom and said “here we go, today is the day” on the way to match.
As soon as we finished the match with a victory after 9 previous losses the outpour of love and excitement from our families came rushing in! We went back to our home “room 330” to enjoy on extra night of a paid hotel room and 3 warm meals. But before we got into the Uber, we were stopped by the MC of the event who had endless energy! He was Kristen’s biggest hype woman and said it didn’t even look like she was on sand. I agreed and shared my belief that she looked like a little bird running across the beach, you know the kind where you can’t even see their feet they are moving so quickly.
The encounter began his fun introduction of being “Kristen the Little Bird in the sand Nuss”. At this point she was just collecting nicknames from each country we hit. On Sunday morning, we were up bright and early but couldn’t be more excited to walk out to the cold, windy beach. There is no sarcasm with this – we love Sunday competitions!!!
Up first, a rematch with Netherlands. As we were warming up the sun was hiding and left ¾ of the court shaded in the cold, wet sand. So, we warmed up for a measly 25 minutes and we hit the court to play. Unlike the first time we matched up against the Dutch we were now on center court and we weren’t playing in a hurricane. After 2 sets we were through to the finals!
The finals at 3 pm were set and we were matched up against the Swiss team, a team that we push to 3 sets nearly every matchup! We were on the bench and called out to the court by the MC as the little bird and the Empire state building. Kristen and I have different opinions on which of the nicknames was the best.
We were down in the 2nd set and made a huge push and fended off 6 match points against the Swiss to push the match to 3 sets. Kristen started off set 3 with a commanding serve and we ran from there. We poured every ounce of energy into this final match as we don’t compete in 4 weeks. After the final serve landed outside of the court, we embraced and enjoyed the few seconds together. We hadn’t been on top of the podium in a while and we were so thankful to be up there and took all of our teammates along with us! The USA staff, coach, family, friends, and entire support system! Also, sorry for all of the heart attacks that was almost caused!
After the medal ceremony, we were swarmed by so many beach volleyball fans. They were very invested, supportive, and loving of the game. One fan was so loving that he even gave Kristen a kiss on the cheek, and later, we were walking through town and an older woman had to stop us and kissed both of us. We felt very loved and thankful. We took the USA staff to get drinks/dinner. Then we had to head back to the room to pack before we got a 2-hour nap and our taxi was early and waiting for our 2:30 am shuttle to the airport. Then, the fun began.
The airline, KLM, informed Kristen that she no longer had a seat on the airplane home. I will tell you that is something you do not want to hear, not to mention at 3 am. I still had a seat on the Monday flight, but hers was for the next day. We sat around for about 60 minutes chatting with Delta only to find out that there was nothing she could do. Kristen then booked a completely new reservation at 4 am on the day of travel and decided we would figure it out later and we flew out at 5 am. Although that was extremely stressful and we had multiple delays on the way home, it was all so much better with a gold medal and progress towards our goal.
By: Taryn Kloth
