Alix Klineman announces beach volleyball retirement

Olympic gold medalist Alix Klineman retires from professional beach volleyball.

Klineman, 34, made the announcement a five-minute video published Monday.

Klineman and April Ross, who won Olympic gold together in Tokyo, will each play their final professional event this weekend at the AVP League Championship in Carson, California.

Ross, an Olympic medalist of every color, previously announced that this is her last season on tour.

“Well, this is it, one last final week of practice with you,” Klineman said in the video, which was worded as a letter to the sport. “It still feels surreal. From my first awkward serve at age 6 to the thrill of competing on the biggest stage in the world, we experienced it all.”

After winning Olympic gold in 2021, Klineman announced in January 2022 that she was undergoing shoulder surgery. She then had son Theo in June 2023.

She returned to competition in September 2023 for her first events in almost two years. Last May, Klineman and Ross teamed up for the first time since 2021 to complete their A-Team partnership on the domestic AVP tour, both as mothers.

“There’s something about winning the gold medal: it ticks a box, at least it did for me,” Klineman said. “Of course, I still love you (volleyball). I’m still here, but the despair is gone. I used to do everything for you. Exhaustion, pain, none of that mattered. It’s actually crazy how much pain I went through for you, and it was all worth it. But now there is something, someone, that is worth more. It’s no longer just about you, volleyball. It’s not about me either. It’s about my family. It’s about my priorities, and they are different now.

“I thought I could do both: be a mother and play, and I did. I am now, but I can’t do both in the way I want to do both. When I do things, I do them to be the best. It’s not necessarily relative to anyone else, but the best I’m capable of. I know I can get better at volleyball now. You know it too. But that means sacrificing the way I show up for Theo, and I don’t want that.”

Klineman was an indoor All-American at Stanford and finished her college career in 2010. She played professionally in Italy and Brazil before switching to the beach full-time in 2017.

After Klineman’s first full season on the AVP tour, with one second-place finish in eight events, she went on a trial run with Ross, and they became a team. By then, Ross had already won a world championship, plus Olympic silver and bronze medals with previous partners. Klineman still had to play an international match.

“April, thank you for taking that chance on me in 2018,” Klineman said. “You taught me so much about the sport and how to be the best.”

Klineman and Ross quickly became the best in the US and soon the world. In Tokyo, they became the second U.S. women’s beach team to win Olympic gold, following Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings, who did so in 2004, 2008 and 2012.

“The one thing I wanted most, the Olympics, was always out of reach (indoors),” Klineman said. “Following you (volleyball) to the beach was a plot twist that even I didn’t see coming.

“Starting from the beginning, and more importantly, from the bottom, was perhaps my favorite part of it all. The beach is where we fell in love again, and that’s why it will probably be my favorite place.”