Volleyball star Taryn Kloth set to be first Olympic woman athlete to represent Creighton

Only five Jays — Carl Vinciquerra, Willard Schmidt, Scott Servais, Chad McConnell and Gregory Echenique — have ever graced that worldwide stage.

Taryn Kloth will become the sixth this summer when she heads to Paris for the 2024 Olympics.

“It literally makes me cry, because it’s so cool,” Kloth said Monday over Zoom. “Representing USA and those three letters and everything that it means, the flag, everybody cheering for you, it’s so cool.”

Kloth played indoor volleyball at CU from 2015-18 and helped the program win the Big East regular-season and tournament titles all four years. Her college career started with a trip to the Sweet 16 and a run to the Elite Eight before a pair of second-round exits.

Then Kloth, an All-American in both 2016 and 2018, transferred to LSU to play beach volleyball. Going from the court to the sand was quite the adjustment for someone who grew up in South Dakota.

“It was embarrassing,” Kloth said. “I couldn’t walk in the sand. I couldn’t jump. Somebody would set me a ball, and I would hit it to the bottom of the net every single time for the first year. It was so, so embarrassing.”

Three years after going undefeated, Kloth and Kristen Nuss — the beach partner she met at LSU — are ranked as the No. 2 team in the world by the International Volleyball Federation.

When those two go to Paris, Kloth will be the Jays’ first Olympian since Echenique played basketball for Venezuela in the 2016 Summer Games in Rio De Janeiro.

More importantly, though, she’ll make history as the first woman to represent Creighton at the Olympics.

She took a second to digest the news.

“That’s really special, because there are a lot of people who didn’t get the same opportunities as me. And there’s so many little girls that are coming up and they’re playing volleyball, and they’re playing beach volleyball.

“I even look back at my two little sisters. I did not have the experience they’re getting, but I’m OK with that. Like, somebody had to walk so they can run. And there are so many people, so many female athletes before us that made all of this happen.”

Success in Paris, Kloth said, would mean playing with joy and happiness. She’s tense before most matches, but she wants to enjoy whatever moment she’s in while over there.

Gold is still the goal, though. That’s the expectation that comes with being one of the best teams in the world.

Kloth’s is packed until then. She has a tournament this weekend in California and another one next weekend in Portugal, where her and Nuss will try to secure their seeding for the Olympics. Then it’s a month of training, a tune-up in Switzerland and less than two weeks off before Paris.

And paperwork. A ton of it.

“There are a lot of hoops to jump through,” Kloth said, “but I will happily jump through every single one of them for me to be able to go to the Olympic Games.”

The volleyball part of this year’s Summer Games starts July 27, with the gold medal match set for Aug 9. The Opening Ceremony for the 2024 Olympics is July 26. The games will run through Aug. 11.