Five women got on the phone last Friday to weigh a heavy decision.
Each represented half of the five American beach volleyball tandems vying to represent the U.S. at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. They had (virtually) gathered to discuss whether to fly to Australia for an upcoming tournament and continue competing against each other for the remaining spot on Team USA—and risk exposure to coronavirus or a travel ban that would keep them overseas—or to stay home and risk watching the other women on the call celebrate on the medal stand in Tokyo.
“Everyone on the call,” Kerri Walsh-Jennings recalled on Monday as she and her husband made dinner for their children, “even though we were in different places in the qualification process, was in the same boat.