Sioux Falls volleyball star turned Olympian prepares to take the court in Paris

By Mick Garry, for Pigeon605

Taryn Kloth’s father, Mike Kloth, likens his daughter’s rise in the world of beach volleyball to the bobsledders of Jamaica. Not a lot of snow in Jamaica and not a lot of beach in South Dakota.

When Kloth makes her Olympic debut with teammate Kristen Nuss on Saturday at Eiffel Tower Stadium in Paris, they will do so as the second-ranked women’s team in the world.

Photos via @tkloth10

It’s a long way from a lot of places. Some of that path can be measured by actual miles, and some of it can’t. Whether we’re talking about the distance from South Dakota to Paris or the distance from O’Gorman all-stater to beach volleyball Olympian, she is a long way from home.

Take a look at this video retrospective of her journey.

 

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“I’m so excited to meet the other athletes, or at least some of them,” Kloth told USA Volleyball before leaving for Paris. “I’m a little scared because I’m afraid I might freak out. I can’t form sentences. That is my biggest issue. (In those situations,) I can’t talk.”

In either case, Kloth has gracefully navigated her way through a process in a manner that seems to prove talent and the capacity to embrace challenges can win out.

“So many girls can play beach volleyball as a high school sport,” Mike Kloth said. “For Taryn, she was blessed to play four years of court volleyball at Creighton and then a few college beach programs saw her agility, her size (6-4) and her quickness and said ‘Hey, we’d like to give you a chance to play some beach volleyball.’”

The thumbnail version of Kloth’s ascent goes like this:

After graduating from O’Gorman High School as an elite Division I recruit, she went to Creighton and eventually earned All-America status and was named the Big East MVP. She still had a year of eligibility remaining and decided to pursue a master’s degree at Louisiana State University while playing competitive beach volleyball for the first time.

At LSU, her playing partner was 5-6 Kristen Nuss, whose experience in beach volleyball far, far exceeded Kloth’s. Then came COVID. Kloth got another year to compete, and by the second year, the pair was dominating at the college level.

She and Nuss, a Louisiana native who won an NCAA-record 139 career matches at LSU, have been a pro team since 2021. How has that gone? Well, look at them now. That’s how it’s gone.

“It was about 2 1/2 years ago, and they beat some former Olympians,” Mike Kloth remembers. “They were a fresh young team out of LSU kicking some butt, and that’s when I think it really started to click.”

Mike Kloth, a starting center on a pair of North Central Conference champion University of South Dakota basketball teams in the early 1990s, has become a student of beach volleyball and its top competitors since then.

 At first, that meant familiarizing with the college scene. Then, it was the professional world at the entry level. Now, it includes the best in the world.

“It’s kind of unreal when you think about it,” he said. “There are 24 teams in women’s beach volleyball in the Olympics. The USA has two of the top three teams going in. When you think about all the women who have played beach volleyball and court volleyball and to have someone like Taryn make the transition from the court to the beach – well, it’s pretty crazy. One of the top four players in the U.S. is a South Dakota girl. That’s awesome.”

Kloth has regularly been sharing updates from Paris on her social media accounts — including this one showcasing all the Nike-provided swag the Olympians received:

 

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At Eiffel Tower Stadium, Kloth and Nuss will begin play Saturday against Canada in Pool B, which also includes teams from China and Australia. The opening round consists of six pools of four teams. Each team plays every other team in their pool, and the two best teams from that pool – plus the two best third-place teams – advance to the next round.

It then progresses like a conventional 16-team tournament. If things go the way Kloth and Nuss want them to go, they would be playing for medals Aug. 9. That’s a long time to be thinking about volleyball. Probably too long. In conversations with others who competed as Olympic beach volleyball players, she has taken some of their advice to heart.

“Get out of the village and leave and remove yourself and not just do beach volleyball,” Kloth told USA Volleyball. “It’s a very long two weeks, and we’re going a week early. I was thinking it would be all about being all locked in and focused, and instead I heard ‘No, go do things. Otherwise you’re going to drive yourself crazy.’”

To that end, both Kloth and Nuss have plenty of family going.

“They’re going to be a wonderful distraction,” Kloth said. “The best possible distraction. So that will be nice.”

All beach volleyball matches will be livestreamed on FubuTV and Peacock. Kloth’s first match will be played at 3 p.m. CDT on Saturday. They will face an Australian team at 4 p.m. Monday and complete pool play against China at 4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 1.