The Old Guard for Beach Volleyball Is Gone. Enter U.S. Olympian Sara Hughes

Beach volleyball is a sport, perhaps more than any other, that the Olympics really raises into public consciousness every quadrennium. NBC plays it big in prime time, and it tends to offer scenic eye candy: in London a dozen years ago, for example, sand was imported to the Horse Guards Parade, just yards from Downing Street and Buckingham Palace and the Churchill War Rooms. The Olympic beach-volleyball backdrop screamed royalty. In Rio in 2016, Copacabana Beach hosted. That backdrop screamed party.  

In Paris, beach volleyball again has earned iconic real estate: the venue is at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. Magnifique! Come late July, expect to see the sand all over your screens.

And expect to see a changing of the guard for the Americans. The U.S. women have won four gold medals at the last five Games, thanks in large part to a troika of players—Kerri Walsh Jennings, Misty May-Treanor, and April Ross—who dominated the game for decades. Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor won three straight Olympic gold medals together, in Athens, Beijing, and London, between 2004 and 2012; at the London Olympics, they defeated the team of Ross and Jennifer Kessy in the gold-medal match, giving Ross her first Olympic medal, a silver. May-Treanor retired before Rio, and Ross teamed with Walsh Jennings for those Games; they won bronze on Copacabana. 

Then Walsh Jennings stepped aside, but Ross returned for Tokyo. At 39, Ross—this time teamed with Alix Klineman—finally won her gold.

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But now Ross isn’t going to the Olympics either. So for the first time since 2000, none of these three American stalwarts will be at the Games.  

Who’s most likely to step up for the U.S. women, to continue the country’s tradition of Olympic beach excellence?  

World, meet Sara Hughes. 

Hughes, 29, who will be making her Olympic debut playing alongside Kelly Cheng for the U.S. in Paris, is one of the best defensive players on the planet, diving all over the sand to save points. She grew up in Southern California, in Costa Mesa, not far from Huntington Beach, and started playing beach volleyball at 8 years old. A coach told her, “‘If you want to be the best, you have to watch the best.”’ So Hughes would sit on a wall and watch the practices of May-Treanor, who also trained out of Huntington Beach.

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When it came time for Hughes to choose a college, beach volleyball was starting to emerge as an NCAA sport. She was recruited for indoor volleyball, but her heart was always on the sand. “Beach has this aura,” says Hughes. It’s certainly fun being outside and under the sun. Plus, indoor volleyball tends to breed more specialization: you have your blockers and your outside hitters and what have you. On the beach, with just two players to a side, you must summon all your skills. “You have to be able to do everything and do it really well and there's no subs,” says Hughes. “I love being able to do it all.”      

May-Treanor, Walsh Jennings, and Ross all played indoor volleyball in college. Hughes, however, believed USC was building something special on the beach, and accepted a scholarship to compete on sand. “It was one of the hardest decisions I had to make because I felt like I was letting people down if I didn't play indoor,” says Hughes. “But I had to trust my heart, trust my gut. I never looked back.” 

At Southern Cal, Hughes teamed up with Cheng, with whom she’d been playing since high school: the pair took bronze at the 2013 FIVB U19 World Championships and the FIVB U21 World Championships a year later. In 2016, Cheng and Hughes, known as “Cardinal and Gold” at USC because of their respective hair colors—and as a nod to the school colors—won the World University Games. They won 103 straight matches together in college and earned NCAA titles with USC in 2016 and 2017.

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Their plan to hit the pro beach-volleyball circuit together, however, quickly fizzled out. “We just needed to grow up and to understand the professional aspect of the sport a little bit more,” says Hughes. “We needed more opportunities to grow as players. We were always together, and going into the wide world of the professional beach-volleyball scene, maybe we didn't know exactly what was needed to make it. So we came together and decided to go our own ways.” 

The breakup in 2018 was amicable enough for them to get back together. Hughes’ hopes for Tokyo were dashed when her new partner, Summer Ross, got injured, while Cheng and Sarah Sponcil lost in the round of 16 at those Games. In 2022, Hughes and Cheng were on each other’s minds for Paris. Cheng made the first move, asking Hughes via text if she had some time to chat. They agreed to meet at a Starbucks in Long Beach, Calif., about halfway between Hughes’ home in Hermosa Beach and Cheng’s in Huntington Beach. “We both don't drink coffee,” says Hughes. “We were so nervous.”

They got right to the point. “We talked through a lot of things,” says Hughes. “We talked about our goals and how we wanted to approach the rest of our careers. It all aligned.” They left agreeing to take some time to think about it. “Four hours later, I called her and said, ‘Let’s do this.’” says Hughes. “‘We’re winning a gold medal in Paris.’”

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In October 2023, they won the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Mexico, establishing themselves as clear threats at the Olympics. “It's kind of an ultimate combo coming back together,” says Hughes. “We needed to grow up. And that’s exactly what they did.” The pair complement each other well, with Cheng, at 6 ft. 2 in., the primary blocker at the net, and Hughes the 5 ft., 10 in. speedster returning the shots that get past her partner. The chemistry has clicked: while warming up, for example, they’ll split a pair of headphones, each playing jamming out to the same playlist. “That’s really fun for us to get on the same page,” says Hughes. 

The top Brazilian duo, Ana Patricia and Duda, whom Hughes and Cheng defeated in the worlds final last year, will be seeking revenge. The other American team, Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss, finished third in that competition, losing to Hughes and Cheng in the semis. They’ll be tough to beat too. 

But expect the reunited Cardinal and Gold to be in the mix. “People really like to see how much fun and passion we bring to the court,” says Hughes. “We play with a lot of pride. We wear USA proudly on our chest. We want people to see that.” 

Does Hughes have any Olympic predictions? 

“Gold medal. Under the Eiffel Tower. I hope you're there to watch.”