TOKYO — The gamblers looked at one another. When had they known their bet would pay off?
“When we won our first tournament,” said Alix Klineman.
“It’s funny, because I was committed,” said April Ross. “This was gonna be my partner for the quad, and however we started, that was just going to be how we started, we're gonna work through it. But we did win our first international tournament, and it was just kind of like, Well, duh.”
Klineman laughed. “We made the right choice,” she said.
Twenty-four hours from a chance at an Olympic gold medal in beach volleyball, it sure seems that way.