PARIS — When Jordan Larson rose up to score the final point in the gold medal volleyball match at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, the storybook ending was ready to be written.
To have Larson, one of the best players in the history of USA Volleyball, record the final kill against Brazil and lead the Americans to gold, after winning bronze in 2016 and silver in 2012, felt fitting. She smashed the winning point over the net, dropped to her knees and screamed in victory as teammates piled on top of her. Her joy was evident and she cried uncontrollably, the crowning moment in a career filled with achievements.
Shortly after the Olympics, the Hooper, Neb., native — population 782 — retired from international competition. Ten days after Tokyo, she got married. She finished up her pro career in Italy and transitioned to coaching, moving to Texas to work alongside her husband, UT associate head coach David Hunt. She thought starting a family was part of the next chapter. She knew how few athletes across the world got to go out on top, and felt grateful she could be in that camp.
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But Larson and Hunt split soon after, and Larson made her way home to Nebraska. Amid significant personal life upheaval, she started to think her time with the national team wasn’t over quite yet. In fact, maybe she missed playing the game she devoted her life to more than she realized. And maybe she could still play at that level.
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In spring 2023, Larson made a decision: She would come out of retirement and re-join Team USA to help the Americans defend their gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
And yes, she’s just as surprised as anyone that she’s still playing at 37 years old.
“To be in this position again, I never fathomed it,” Larson told USA TODAY Sports. “I’ve really fallen in love with the challenge of, how far can I push myself? And within that, how can I withstand pressure, especially when people around the game are saying, ‘You’re too old to do this.’
“That fuels me. If you have doubt, I’m going to show you you’re wrong.”
Of course, Larson understands why people might be skeptical about her ability to impact a sport that involves a lot of jumping — particularly for an outside hitter like herself — as she nears 40. But in Paris, the first time she’ll ever visit the city outside of its airport, she’s eager to share all the reasons she can make a difference.
For one, she’s strong — maybe stronger than she’s ever been before. The three-year break between Olympics didn’t involve as much on-court action for Larson, which allowed her to get in the weight room.
“I have a lot of muscle memory when it comes to this game,” she said. “For me now, it’s more about keeping myself healthy and strong.”
She’s got the former down, too, having (mostly) kicked to the curb some nagging Plantar fasciitis that had bothered her leading up to Tokyo.
But perhaps more than anything, Larson brings a new love and appreciation for the game. Part of that comes from the couple seasons she’s spent coaching at the collegiate level, including at Nebraska, her alma mater. She loves sharing her knowledge with the next generation. Occasionally Huskers coach John Cook even throws her in practice so she can impart that knowledge directly.
It’s one of her favorite things, she said — so long as she gets to jump into practice immediately. At 37, standing around and waiting and getting stiff isn’t ideal.
“There have been times where it’s felt like a job,” Larson said of her 15-year professional career. “But for me now, there’s a real joy and love of the game, and I don’t take that for granted. There have been times when I’ve been like, ‘Is it time to hang it up?’ But I think the longer I’ve played, the more it’s become a challenge of, how much more can I push myself?”
How Jordan Larson’s Navy SEAL training at Joshua Tree helped her
Whenever Larson thinks she’s hit a wall, she remembers Joshua Tree.
In summer 2021, before USA Volleyball headed to Tokyo for the delayed Olympics, Larson and the team drove to Joshua Tree desert, a 2.5-hour journey east of Los Angeles, for a team-building exercise led by a former Navy SEAL. It was brutally challenging, she recalled. At one point they were awake for 40 straight hours.
So when she’s in the middle of a tough practice or a match that’s not going well and doubt starts to creep in, she reminds herself: “After Joshua Tree, I can do anything!”
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Who gets to quantify how hard something is anyway, Larson said.
“When you are in a high performance space, even though the margins are razor thin, there is an addiction to that, to the daily auditing of how you can better,” said Sue Enquist, who won 11 titles with the UCLA softball as both a player and coach and now works as a consultant with USA Volleyball. Enquist added that Larson exemplifies that.
Larson gushed about the work she’s done with Enquist, crediting Enquist for helping her find success and satisfaction in volleyball no matter the scoreboard outcome. When Larson was contemplating a return to the national team, Enquist was one of the first people she called.
“I wasn’t surprised at all,” Enquist said. “What we do in sport, unfortunately, is we ring (athletes) dry, their passion and love and joy — not intentionally, but it happens … but she is one of the few who we did not ring her dry. This woman loves volleyball, she loves what it makes her feel, she loves the challenge, loves how it makes her feel, loves the challenge, she even loves it when she hates it. She wakes up every day with a renewed sense of love for it.”
Larson knows some younger members of Team USA, like first-time Olympian Avery Skinner, might look at the veteran team captain and think she’s fearless. Larson said it couldn’t be further from the truth.
“When I decided to come back, 1000% I had doubt,” she said. “Even now, those fears and doubts are still there. But for me it’s become about, ‘OK, I have years of knowledge to get me out of this (situation) — how can I draw from that information, press into discomfort and get better in this moment?’”
That journey, she said, has allowed her to find peace no matter the outcome of a match, a perspective she didn’t have in her youth. And it’s why she knows that no matter what happens in these Games, even if she doesn’t win another gold, her love of the process will be the lasting memory.
Though Larson is viewing Paris as a work trip, she’s hopeful to find time to “enjoy the French cuisine” and see some of sites. Her family, including her dad and aunt, will travel to France to watch her compete, a luxury she didn’t get in Tokyo, where spectators were not allowed because of the pandemic. It’s especially satisfying to her that her loved ones will get to watch her Olympic finale.
Although … is it actually her last hurrah?
“I think so!” she said, laughing.
Then she hedged a bit. “But also, there’s no reason to close the door if it’s not necessary.”