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The California music festival was the scene four years ago where
April Ross, who took bronze in 2016 and silver in 2012 with
separate partners, met by chance indoor volleyball roster-cut
Alix Klineman and began an Olympic run that finished Friday with
what Ross called a "fairy-tale" for the Southern California duo.
"In the back of my head, I'm thinking we should get VIP tickets
for the next Stagecoach," said a beaming Ross after winning
gold. The festival returns from a two-year pandemic hiatus next
April.
Ross and Klineman's dominant two-set win over Australia at Tokyo
2020 counted as the fourth U.S. women's gold in a sport
introduced to the Olympics in 1996.
"We went out there and just put it all out there," said Klineman,
who had been seeking redemption for not making the U.S. indoor
volleyball team in 2016.
Like any good fairy tale, some monsters blocked the heroines'
path. Klineman's rocky transition to what she has described as
the higher-intensity beach version of the sport smoothed out
only after embracing watching herself play.
"I was not catching on," she said. "I couldn’t understand why
things were not clicking. I would watch it (and realise) what it
felt like wasn’t what it looked like. That’s when things started
to click a little bit faster."
The pair said they watched four hours of video Thursday night to
prepare for the gold match, as in recent days Klineman felt off
on serves and blocks.
Ross had her own doubts on the way to Tokyo.
"The risk Alix took to come out to the beach, I can’t fathom
that it worked out the way it did," Ross said.
"It’s kind of a fairy tale story, 'Oh, I’m going at 39 (years
old) to try and get my first gold medal and that fact it
actually happened feels so special and surreal."
Ross took a selfie of them on the medal podium at the temporary
court, which was so quiet at times with fans banned that camera
shutters echoed.
Klineman clung to her medal as long as she could while answering
post-match questions.
They also leave with origami from volunteers and flag-emblazoned
pins from other countries' athletes. And they both await those
music festival passes.
(Reporting by Paresh Dave and Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by
Michael Perry)
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