Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games gold medallists April Ross and Alix Klineman return to action this weekend at the Manhattan Beach Open, the second of three AVP Gold Series events this summer. The event follows on from last weekend's tournament in Atlanta, with a third to be held in Chicago from September 3 to 5.
Olympic gold medallists Ross and Klineman back in action
USA pair to play at Manhattan Beach Open from August 20-22
Published 06:25, 19 Aug 2021
With the event open to spectators, it will be an opportunity for American fans to celebrate the Tokyo 2020 winners at an event packed with the top teams in the United States.
April Ross, of course, has experienced the highest of highs as a beach volleyball player, including winning a Manhattan Beach Open with Klineman in 2018 (and with Kerri Walsh Jennings in 2014 and Jennifer Fopma in 2015). She’s won cowbells in Gstaad and gigantic Viking swords in Stavanger on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
But there is nothing – absolutely nothing – that compares to standing on an Olympic podium.
“Number one moment is for sure standing on the podium in the Olympics,” Ross said, prior to the Tokyo Olympics. “Both times [in London, when she won silver, and Rio, where she won bronze], I’m like: how in the world did I get here? Going up there was the coolest thing I’ve ever done… It’s the most addictive moment ever.”
A couple of weeks ago in Tokyo, Ross got another hit of that addictive podium drug, as her and Alix Klineman swept Australians Mariafe Artacho and Taliqua Clancy, 21-15, 21-16 to win gold.
“I'm still trying to process it but I'm so in the present moment here with this team and this medal. I'm so proud of my other ones but just how this worked out, and the risks that Alix took to come out onto the beach and all her hard work … it doesn't happen without that. I can't fathom that it worked out the way it did. It's kind of a fairy-tale story like, 'oh, I'm going at 39 to try and get my gold medal', and the fact that it actually happened feels so special and surreal. I'm just so proud of our team and so grateful for everyone who helped us get here.” April Ross on winning gold at Tokyo 2020
'A fairy-tale story'
The journey to gold was nothing short of remarkable for the two. It was a partnership that began as lopsided as it can possibly get. Here was April Ross, in the fall of 2017, with two Olympic medals to her name, the best player in the United States, with victories by the dozen. And here was Alix Klineman, who had all of one year of experience on the beach, who had exactly zero international points to her name, who had never won an AVP tournament. Yet Ross saw an awful lot of potential in the 6-foot-5 Klineman, who was making the transition from indoor to beach.
She saw Olympic gold medal potential.
“It was the safe choice or the choice I thought was challenging but had the most potential,” Ross said when she announced she was going to partner with Klineman for the 2020 Olympic quad. “I think I’ve learned a lot over the years, and one of the things I’ve learned the importance of is building a like-minded team around yourself, having the same mentality and the same goals and the same work ethic are all really important I think.”
Though Klineman stands three inches taller than Ross and the two are built entirely different, the two share the same tenacious mindset, one bent on improving at a rate many might deem impossible. With less than two months from the time they agreed to play together to the first event of the international season in 2018, a slow start could have been expected.
And then, of course, they won that first event, emerging from the country quota and qualifier to win gold at The Hague.
America’s next dominant team was born.
“Ever since we became partners, there’s been a big feeling of not wanting to let her down,” Klineman said after a semifinal win over Switzerland’s Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Heidrich in Tokyo, who would go on to win bronze. “She took a huge risk on me. I had zero points when I came out onto the beach, and she took me as her partner and we had to play in the country quota. She knew we might be playing in a lot of country quota and qualifiers for a long time. That’s been a huge motivating factor, just to work my hardest every day and to not let her regret her decision."
Ross would never have to worry about Klineman’s anything. Her work ethic? Klineman would often fall asleep watching film late hours into the night. She’d get extra reps with their coach Jen Kessy, then their next coach, Angie Akers. Her blocking? It’s massively different, blocking on the beach rather than indoor; just you vs. the hitter. Yet Klineman was the only blocker who effectively shut the Australians down, limiting them to just 19 kills in 43 attacks. Could she have done that in 2019, 2018? Probably not.
But she could do it when it mattered most: the gold medal match of the Olympic Games.
“It's not some magic formula,” Klineman said. “It's just a lot of hard work, and I think from the outside, sometimes it looks like it was really easy. But April was there, she saw a lot of days where things weren't clicking and I'm trying to learn how to pull or I'm trying to learn how to block like a beach blocker, not an indoor blocker and things are just not falling into place. It was frustrating and I would go home, I'd watch video and we’d talk about it and we’d dissect it, and I'd try again and then fail again. The biggest thing was just sticking with it and being really persistent and going every day with all of the effort and intensity that I had and believing that I could eventually make the changes that I was trying to make. It was just a really steady progression and it involved a lot of time on our part, there's no secret to this."
It is through that failure and growth and failure and growth that Klineman and Ross have patiently built themselves into the best team in the world.
It is through that painstaking process that they have been able to attain the highest of highs: standing on an Olympic podium, gold medals draped around their necks.
And now they are back for more.
Read more: AVP Gold Series Manhattan Beach Open
