Despite not winning a medal at the Paris Olympics, the U.S. beach volleyball duo is vowing to fight on for the next generation of athletes. Lolita Lopez reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, August 7, 2024.
After U.S. women’s beach volleyball duo, Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng, failed Tuesday to secure a spot on the podium at the Paris Olympics, the USC alums are vowing to fight on for the next generation of athletes.
Cheng and Hughes created a lot of memories on the beach courts at their alma mater campus in South Los Angeles. What’s more special now is that there are now banners with their names on them as the school community expresses pride for the Olympians.
“All the banners – it's really cool to see. That's amazing,” Cheng said.
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“When you just walk across the street, it feels like home,” Hughes added. “We were here for four years – every day, five times a week, practicing on this court. I love coming back here.”
The chemistry between Hughes and Cheng were on display around the world after the two grew here as athletes at the home of the Trojans when collegiate beach volleyball was in its infancy. Their partnership led to 103 consecutive match wins at USC as well as back-to-back NCAA National Championships.
“We took a risk playing beach volleyball in college. We were considering playing indoor, and then we believed so much in this sport, and we wanted to see it grow,” Hughes explained. “I think it's just going to keep getting better and better.”
Hughes and Cheng are offering current USC players a blueprint and goal post for their future careers in beach volleyball, according to USC beach volleyball coach Dain Blanton.
“They're the examples,” Blanton said. “They're the people, the players that we look and say, ‘Look what they did when they were here. Look what they did and how far they've come, and how far they've gone.”
