TOKYO — Every journey up the Olympic mountain comes with a series of incidents that, in retrospect, seems meticulously designed but was in fact just a roll of the dice that paid off. Take the U.S. women’s volleyball team. It first qualified for the Olympic 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, the U.S. women had never won the gold medal.

Source: New York Times August 08, 2021 06:12 UTC