U.S. Wins First Gold in Women’s Volleyball

The United States won its first gold medal in women’s volleyball by beating Brazil.Credit...Antonin Thuillier/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesTOKYO — Every journey up the Olympic mountain comes with a series of incidents that, in retrospect, seem meticulously designed but were on fact just rolls of the dice that paid off.

Take the United States women’s volleyball team. It first qualified for the volleyball tournament in 1980, but missed those Games because of an American-led boycott. It has been chasing an Olympic title ever since.

Despite a collegiate infrastructure that churns out volleyball talent on an assembly line, the U.S. women had never won the gold medal. They came close twice,…