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For April Ross, Tokyo Olympics are the pinnacle of an enlightened journey

(Justin Casterline/Getty Images)

April Ross fell in love with volleyball twice.

There was the time she first played on a competitive indoor team, before her freshman year of high school, when Ross says she was “for sure the worst person in the gym” but craved the challenge and the thrill of getting better.

Then there was the time volleyball found her, a few years after she had graduated from college and was fed up with the isolation of playing professionally in Puerto Rico. In fact, Ross was intent on giving up the sport entirely. She had plans to go back to school and get a job.

And unexpectedly, she got a call from a former teammate at USC: Would Ross give beach volleyball a shot, partner with her and help her qualify for the AVP Tour?

“I was like, ‘I’ll try it. I’m not very good,’” Ross said.

“And I just loved the culture. I loved the people. I loved the idea that I might get to see the world because that was always my No. 1 goal growing up, to travel and see the world. So I just dove in, like, let’s see where this takes me now.”

For Ross, who’s now a favorite to win gold with partner Alex Klineman in Tokyo, her third Olympic Games in beach volleyball, those memories matter. The successes and the failures, the doubts and the joys over the years have given Ross a unique perspective heading into what could be her final act.

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Ross is playing in her third Olympics, after winning silver and bronze in 2012 and 2016. (Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

In a way, Ross’ mental preparation for this Olympics run began during her sophomore year of college.

The No. 1 indoor volleyball recruit out of high school in Newport Beach, Calif., Ross chose USC and excelled immediately. She played a key role in the Trojans’ run to the 2001 Final Four and was named the National Freshman of the Year. As Ross’ national profile grew, so too did the expectations.

Soon after Ross began her sophomore year, however, she lost her mother to breast cancer. And suddenly, none of those material achievements mattered.

“I was devastated, but I kept playing and didn’t understand anything about the grieving process and the impact on a psychological level,” she said. “It was just, go through it and deal with it the best that I can.”

Ross started sleeping through her 8 a.m. classes, partying more and paying less attention to her general well-being. Her grades suffered, to the point where she nearly lost her NCAA volleyball eligibility. She mostly kept it together on the court, earning second-team All-American honors that season, but her health eventually caught up to her. Ross sprained her ankle in the Elite Eight and USC missed out on a return trip to the Final Four.

“It really came down to: If my mom was still here, how would she want me to be reacting?” Ross said. “Would she want me to be doing all of this or would she want me to be responsible and uphold the values that she instilled in me, which were taking care of school, giving my all to volleyball and taking care of myself? So it was just a shift in perspective, and it was really powerful for me.

“It definitely changed the trajectory of my college career and played a big part in my future success.”

Ross started keeping a paper schedule, which she still uses to this day. She tracked the times of her classes and workouts, she set a strict lights-out at 11 p.m. and wake-up at 7, and she started cooking healthy foods, just like her mom used to do for her.

The change in routine paid off. In her final two seasons at USC, Ross led the Trojans to back-to-back NCAA championships. Her senior year, she won the Honda Sports Award as the nation’s top collegiate player in volleyball.

The lessons Ross picked up in college kept her grounded during the early years of her professional life, when the uncertainty about her future nearly drove her from the sport altogether. And the experiences Ross had at her first two Olympics, winning silver in London in 2012 and bronze in Rio in 2016, have only clarified her journey at this stage of her career.

“In the first one, I was just super stoked that we were able to qualify. I didn’t have any expectations for us, really, and then we ended up in the gold medal match,” said Ross, who partnered with Jennifer Kessy in London and Kerri Walsh Jennings in Rio. “It was afterwards that I wish I had done things a little bit differently, had higher expectations for myself, prepared a little bit better.

“So going into Rio, I took those lessons to the extreme in a way, over-corrected and had that sole expectation of winning the gold medal. I was hyper-focused and didn’t do anything that was really fun or outside of training and kind of missed the Olympic experience.”

Ross, 39, knows this could be her last Olympics. From years of gaining perspective, she also recognizes she’s more at peace with her career than she’s ever been, and that might be the key to finally winning gold.

“That’s the goal, and the vision of that happening is very motivating and exciting. But at the same time, knowing that sports and life are full of uncertainty,” Ross said.

When she steps onto the sand in Tokyo for her and Klineman’s first match over the weekend, Ross won’t be looking too far ahead. She’ll enjoy every point, every set, every win and every loss, because this is what she loves to do.

“The only things we can control are our attitudes and our preparation,” she said. “The gold medal is not the end all, be all of everything in life, and we’ll be OK no matter what.”

USWNT Vet Carli Lloyd Announces Pregnancy After ‘Rollercoaster’ IVF Journey

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Lloyd will welcome her first child with husband Brian Hollins this October. (Dennis Schneidler/USA TODAY Sports)

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.

Project ACL addresses injury epidemic in women’s football

arsenal's laura wienroither being helped off the field after tearing her acl
Arsenal's Laura Wienroither tore her ACL during a Champions League semifinal in May 2023. (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

On Tuesday, FIFPRO announced the launch of Project ACL, a three-year research initiative designed to address a steep uptick in ACL injuries across women's professional football.

Project ACL is a joint venture between FIFPRO, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University. While the central case study will focus on England’s top-flight Women's Super League, the findings will be distributed around the world.

ACL tears are between two- and six-times more likely to occur in women footballers than men, according to The Guardian. And with both domestic and international programming on the rise for the women’s game, we’ve seen some of the sport's biggest names moved to the season-ending injury list with ACL-related knocks.

Soccer superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Catarina Macario, Marta, and England captain Leah Williamson have all struggled with their ACLs in recent years, though all have since returned to the field. In January, Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr was herself sidelined with the injury, kicking off a year of similar cases across women’s professional leagues. And just yesterday, the Spirit announced defender Anna Heilferty would miss the rest of the NWSL season with a torn ACL. The news comes less than two weeks after Bay FC captain Alex Loera went down with the same injury. 

Project ACL will closely study players in the WSL, monitoring travel, training, and recovery practices to look for trends that could be used to prevent the injury in the future. Availability of sports science and medical resources within individual clubs will be taken into account throughout the process.

ACL injuries in women's football have long outpaced the same injury in the men's game, but resources for specialized prevention and treatment still lag behind. Investment in achieving a deeper, more specialized understanding of the problem should hopefully alleviate the issue both on and off the field.

USC enters superteam era with transfer portal gains 

Oregon State transfer and USC recruit Talia von Oelhoffen at 2024 NCAA women's tournament
Oregon State transfer Talia von Oelhoffen adds fuel to USC's 2025 NCAA title dreams. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

With recent transfers Talia von Oelhoffen and Kiki Iriafen joining first-team All-American JuJu Watkins and the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class at USC next season, the Trojans look to transition from an up-and-coming squad to a legitimate title contender. 

Former Oregon State graduate student von Oelhoffen is the latest collegiate talent to commit to the program, announcing her transfer Monday via ESPN. She follows ex-Stanford leading-scorer Iriafen in the jump to the pair’s one-time Pac-12 rival.

The 5-foot-11 Washington native was a two-time All-Pac-12 guard during her time at Oregon State. But after the recent dissolution of the Pac-12, the Corvallis side found themselves without a permanent home conference going forward. Many big name players opted to take their skill elsewhere as a result, with von Oelhoffen’s fellow ex-Beaver Raegan Beers announcing her own departure to Oklahoma on Monday.

According to DraftKings, USC is now tied with UConn for the second-best betting odds to win the 2025 NCAA women’s tournament. Dawn Staley’s tested South Carolina side, poised for a repeat performance, holds down the number one spot.

Last year, LSU loaded up in the transfer portal after beating Iowa to win the 2023 national championship. The Tigers were clear favorites coming into the 2023-24 season, but were bounced in the Elite Eight by Caitlin Clark’s Hawkeyes. Shortly thereafter, star transfer Hailey Van Lith opted to transfer a second time, this time signing with TCU. 

Yet while history proves that an excess of star power doesn’t always translate to on-court chemistry, on paper, USC sure looks ready to hold their own — in 2025 and beyond.

U.S., Mexico drop bid to host 2027 Women’s World Cup 

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USWNT fans will have to settle for cheering on their home team from abroad in 2027. (Brad Smith/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)

The United States and Mexico have withdrawn their joint bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup, per a Monday afternoon release from U.S. Soccer and the Mexican Football Federation.

According to the statement, they will instead focus on developing a "more equitable" bid for the 2031 tournament, with the ultimate goal of "eliminating investment disparities" between the men’s and women’s tournaments.

The federations went on to cite the upcoming 2026 Men’s World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico as an opportunity to build support for local infrastructure, improve audience engagement, and scale up media and partnership deals in preparation to "host a record-breaking tournament in 2031."

"Hosting a World Cup tournament is a huge undertaking — and having additional time to prepare allows us to maximize its impact across the globe," said U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone. "Shifting our bid will enable us to host a record-breaking Women’s World Cup in 2031 that will help to grow and raise the level of the women’s game both here at home as well as across the globe."

The decision leaves just Brazil and a joint bid from Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands in the running for the 2027 host spot. Brazil — the rumored frontrunner — has never hosted a Women’s World Cup, while Germany hosted the 2011 tournament as a solo venture. 

Furthermore, this postponement doesn’t mean the U.S. is a shoo-in for 2031, as it's been previously reported that 2022 UEFA Women's EURO host England is considering their own Women's World Cup bid. FIFA is scheduled to confirm the winning bid after the FIFA Congress votes on May 17th.

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