April Ross and Alix Klineman of the U.S. Win Beach Volleyball Gold

They had an extraordinary run at the Tokyo Olympics, winning gold without dropping a set in any of their four matches in sweltering heat. The dominance was the payoff for Klineman’s transition to a new sport and Ross’s bet on a new player.

As she walked through the media zone, Klineman held tightly to her gold medal.

“People realize what a risk April took taking me on as a partner,” she said. “I had less than one year experience and wasn’t playing at that high level.”

The duo said they used every opportunity to improve, including the hour warm-up period before each game. It was a grind, they said, practicing — not simply warming up — until the whistle.

“When you’re working for something like this, you need someone who is going to work their butt off every day,” Ross said. “And I knew she was coming out to the beach to make the Olympics. And I knew taking such a risk for herself was a motivating factor.”

“It all held up,” she added, looking up to Klineman, who is 6 feet 5 inches tall.

For Ross, the gold medal is the culmination of a career that at times was lost in the long shadow of the greatest U.S. beach volleyball players, Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor, the gold medalists in 2004, 2008 and 2012.

In her first Olympic trip, Ross won silver in 2012 with Jennifer Kessy, losing the final to the legendary duo. When May-Treanor retired, Ross joined forces with Walsh Jennings to win bronze in 2016.

Now she has the full set.

“I still can’t fathom that it worked out the way it did,” Ross said moments after Klineman placed the gold medal around her neck. “It’s kind of a fairy tale story, going out at 39 to try and get my gold medal. The fact that it actually happened feels so special and so surreal.”