Tri Bourne 'couldn't be any more ready for this moment'

Forget the new sets and offensive plays and defensive schemes. Forget who takes the role as the vocal captain, the leader of the team. Forget who stays at the net and who drops in defense in transition.

Tri Bourne and Jake Gibb are just trying to figure out their high fives, for crying out loud.

Only two times had Bourne and Gibb practised together prior to their Olympic debut on Sunday night in Tokyo. Making matters all the more difficult, they can’t even room together, as Gibb moved hotels due to contact tracing protocols. But the hotel is, at this point, part of the whirlwind that these past six days have been for Gibb and Bourne and coach Rich Lambourne.

Six days before they’d win their first Olympic match, 21-18, 21-19, against Italy’s Enrico Rossi and Adrian Carambula on Sunday night, Bourne was in Las Vegas, visiting family. He wasn’t an Olympian. Gibb was – with Bourne’s good friend, Taylor Crabb.

By now you know the basics of the story: Crabb tested positive for COVID. Then he tested positive again. Emergency calls were made.

Bourne has been one of Gibb’s chief rivals since Bourne emerged onto the AVP in 2014. Since, Gibb has been, as Bourne put it, “the player who’s pushed me the most in my competitive career. From a competitor’s standpoint he's probably the player I respect the most in the world in terms of the way he goes about his business, the way he competes. As much as I don’t like it, he’s made me a better player, more so than any other player I’ve played against.”

It was also Gibb who kept Bourne out of the 2016 Olympics, as Gibb and Casey Patterson earned the spot over Bourne and John Hyden. In 2021, it was again Gibb and Taylor Crabb who edged Bourne and Trevor Crabb.

It is with perfect irony, then, that it was the player who has pushed him the most for the better part of the last decade, the player who has blocked Bourne’s path to the Olympics, who became the very player who called him into these Games.

They’re an intriguing team, Bourne and Gibb. Something of a natural fit, too. Gibb has played right side his entire career; Bourne has played exclusively left. Gibb has always blocked; for the past four years, Bourne has split-blocked, getting what can now be viewed as invaluable defensive reps behind Crabb’s block.

For all the inevitable chatter there will be about their lack of practise and repetitions together as a team, neither Bourne nor Gibb will be making any excuses. Nor does there seem to be any urgency for them. They jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the first set, behind an ace and two digs from Bourne and a block from Gibb. Then they took a 15-13 lead in the second set and controlled the match from there. They were calm, collected, steady.

They looked, in spite of everything, like a team.

“There’s no ‘We’re not supposed to win, we’re at a disadvantage because we’re not a team,’” Bourne said. “I’m ready to go. Whatever happens, happens, but there’s no excuses. We’re out here to win, with the intention to win a gold. The deck might be stacked against us on paper but our intentions are clear: we’re out here to represent USA and bring home some hardware.”

No hardware will be won in pool play. But the path has certainly been made easier with an opening win against the Italians. Their next match will be on Wednesday against Swiss Mirco Gerson and Adrian Heidrich, who dropped their opener to Qataris Ahmed Tijan and Cherif Younousse.

"I’m here now, I’m called an Olympian, and I couldn’t feel more ready for this," Bourne said. "I just feel like this is what I’ve been preparing for. Right when I lost this bid, and Taylor and Jake beat us out for the spot, I moved my brain onto 2024. I didn’t ever stop pursuing being an Olympian. I stayed in shape and I feel like I couldn’t be any more ready for this moment.”

Quick links:
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
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