Jordan Larson certainly isn’t a rookie when it comes to preparing for the Olympics, but the American outside hitter did experience something new in that area ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Games, the third of her volleyball career.
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Volleyball
Different preparation, same success for USA star Larson
The American captain has returned stronger from the prolonged break and is looking for her first gold
Published 05:07, 07 Aug 2021
The 34-year-old veteran was one of the thousands of athletes around the world who felt a little bit disoriented when the Olympics were postponed by a year and found themselves at home with lot of uncertainty about the future.
Larson, a London 2012 silver and a Rio 2016 bronze medallist, and her American teammates, however, decided to accept the cards they were dealt and do the best they could to prepare for the Olympics. With the team guaranteed a medal for a fourth-straight edition of the Games, and just one victory away from an elusive gold, it’s fair to say their work paid off.
“We were on a zoom call every month for almost two hours sometimes, and we committed to that as a team,” the American captain explained. “You’re seeing it pay off and all those conversations that happened a year and a half ago, when everything was shut down. We have so much faith in one another and so much trust. We’ve had heart to heart conversations, we’ve been through tough things and we’re ready to fight. It’s not over yet and I just want to go out with my head held high.”
The extended break could have been a source of difficulties, but not to a seasoned veteran with Larson’s experience. After over a decade in which she has remained active for entire seasons with club and national team, the American used the time off to restore her body and mind as she prepared for the challenge that waited for her in Tokyo.
“I stopped jumping for probably two months, it’s the most time that I have not jumped, which was fantastic for me at 33,” she explained. “I needed some time off. I probably didn’t touch a ball for almost three months. I’m kind of one of those players, though, that I think at the age I was, I didn’t really need to be touching the ball a lot. Mentally, I needed to step away until I came back and had a new perspective.”
That feeling of perspective could lead to a very satisfying result if the North Americans defeat Brazil in the gold medal match, get revenge for their gold medal match losses at Beijing 2008 and London 2012 and celebrate their first-ever Olympic gold medal at the Ariake Arena.
The two teams met about a month ago, in Rimini, Italy in the final of the 2021 FIVB Volleyball Nations League, and USA won 3-1 to secure their third-straight title in the tournament.
“People say ‘There’s so much pressure because the US has never won’”, Larson reflected. “But there’s no pressure, we’ve never done it, so why not go out swinging. We’re going to go out and try and do what we can, swing as hard as we can, go after it and just go and take it. They are going to try and find our weaknesses, but at the end of the day, all we can control is what we do and that’s trusting one another and I think that’s what we’re going to do.”
The Olympic gold medal match in Tokyo could be the last of Larson’s international career as she turns 35 in two months.
“I dealt with a lot of those emotions before coming here,” the outside hitter added. “Like ‘how do I want to leave my legacy and what do I want to leave behind?’. And I’ve already done a lot. I’ve been able to play at the highest level for a really long time and I’ve done it to the best of my ability, and at the end of the day that’s all I’ve hoped for. I can sleep well at night and knowing that I did everything that I could. And I think that’s what our next match is going to be. At the end of the day, can we all sleep well and know that we did everything and left everything out there?”
