AVP Beach Volleyball Champions Brasher And Cruz Aim For LA28 Olympics

After experiencing the pressure of the 2024 Paris Olympics, U.S. beach volleyball champions Taryn Brasher and Kristen Cruz are approaching LA28 with a different perspective—one built around preparation, presence and enjoying the journey.

(This is part two of a two-part story based on a Forbes exclusive interview with Taryn Brasher and Kristen Cruz on September 3, 2026. All quotes are taken directly from a transcript of the interview.)

A Changed The Perspective

For Taryn Brasher and Kristen Cruz, the 2024 Paris Olympics began long before they stepped onto the sand beneath the Eiffel Tower. Almost from the moment they left college, Paris was the destination. It was the goal. It was the thing on the calendar that seemed impossibly far away—and then suddenly became everything. The experience taught the American beach volleyball stars something neither training nor competition could fully prepare them for.

The Olympics are different.

And if they earn the opportunity to play in Los Angeles in 2028, Brasher and Cruz intend to approach the Games differently.

When The Olympics Become Everything

Taryn Brasher admitted with hindsight that their singular focus on Paris came at a cost.

“I did not enjoy the process as much,” she said. “I was so tunnel vision on that.”

Now she wants to create more room in the next Olympic cycle. Weekends away. Time with family. Mental breaks. Moments when volleyball is not the only thing in her life.

“There is just so much more to life,” Brasher said. “Yes, that is very important. But I think giving myself those mental breaks and those just like ‘get away from it for a little bit’ times also is super beneficial for me.”

That realization came through disappointment. Paris did not produce the Olympic result they wanted. And for a while, the experience hurt deeply. Brasher remembers a period when she could hardly say the word “Olympics” without crying. But eventually, the pain brought new perspective.

The Most Important Lesson From Paris

“The other thing that I realized was probably the biggest thing that I realized—that it is not life or death,” Brasher said.

She had put enormous pressure on herself. If they didn’t win, she thought, it would be catastrophic. Then the competition ended. And she woke up the next morning.

“Life is going to go on,” she said.

That may sound obvious. But for an athlete who has spent years building toward a single Olympic opportunity, it can be also be quite profound. The Olympics matter enormously. But they are not an athlete’s entire identity. Brasher described it as a “light bulb moment.” After Paris, she began to understand that there is a danger in sacrificing the present for an event that exists years in the future.

“If you don’t enjoy the process, and then it’s over, and you didn’t get like the one goal that you wanted, you’re going to see that as like so much time that you almost like gave up not being present because you’re so focused on the future,” she said.

That lesson may be one of the most valuable things she brings from Paris to Los Angeles.

Turning Paris Into Preparation For LA28

For Kristen Cruz, another lesson from Paris involved the way the two athletes approached the event itself. They are accustomed to entering tournaments with intensity while still finding ways to enjoy the experience. But in Paris, they elevated everything.

“I feel like we almost—it sounds crazy—but I feel like for the Olympics, we locked it in too much,” Cruz said.

Instead of allowing the Olympics to become another tournament, they made it something even larger. And that can become dangerous. “If we’re able to make it to LA28, then we really can just view it as if it’s any other tournament,” Cruz said. She knows Los Angeles will not actually be an ordinary tournament. It will be the Olympics in their home country, in Southern California, with an American audience and an entirely different level of attention. But the goal is to make the competition feel familiar even when the surroundings are not.

A Deeper U.S. Beach Volleyball Field

The American women’s beach volleyball landscape also makes qualifying for LA28 anything but automatic. Cruz and Brasher are competing in an increasingly deep U.S. field.

As Team USA Beach Volleyball Coach April Ross said in an August 2026 interview, there are roughly eight or nine American women’s teams capable of making the Olympic selection process extremely competitive. That depth is good for the sport. But it also means nothing can be taken for granted. For an athlete, making an Olympic team can be nearly as difficult as succeeding once the Games begin. Cruz and Brasher understand that reality. They also understand how quickly an Olympic opportunity can pass. That makes the lessons of Paris even more valuable: The Olympic lights are brighter. The stakes feel larger. The event can become bigger than the sport itself.

In the end, though, life will go on.

That perspective doesn’t make them less ambitious. If anything, it may make them better athletes. For Brasher and Cruz, controlling what they can control means returning to the philosophy that has produced their recent success. Focus on their side of the net. Trust the training. Adapt. Communicate. And don’t sacrifice the present for an imagined future payoff.

The Power Of Mentors And Role Models

Mentors and role models have helped shape that perspective.

Cruz cited New Orleans sports legend Drew Brees, whom she has admired for his leadership, his ability to inspire others and the way he succeeded despite being undersized. She also grew up watching beach volleyball stars Misty May and Laura Ludwig.

Brasher pointed to Olympic volleyball champion Jordan Larson, whom she idolized growing up and later encountered in the USA Volleyball environment. She remembers Larson’s intensity in the practice gym and, equally important, the respect she showed everyone around her. Brasher also spoke about Kerri Walsh Jennings, who reached out before Paris and offered to FaceTime with her, answer questions and provide advice.

And then there are the people outside volleyball.

Brasher specifically mentioned her husband and her mother. Her mother played an especially important role because she was the one who originally pushed Brasher toward volleyball. Brasher didn’t want to play. Her mother insisted she at least try.

The rest is history.

Cruz described a different but equally powerful relationship with her own mother. Her mother is simultaneously her biggest supporter and biggest critic. “She keeps it real,” Cruz said. Sometimes that means telling her daughter she played badly. Cruz appreciates that honesty. She also credits her entire family, including her three older brothers, all of whom traveled to Paris.

“It does take a village,” Cruz said.

For athletes preparing for an Olympic Games, that village matters. The training may happen on the court. The emotional recovery often happens somewhere else.

The Brightest Lights In Los Angeles

The spotlight in Los Angeles is likely to be extraordinary. LA28 will bring the Olympics back to Southern California for the first time since 1984. For American athletes, competing on home soil creates an opportunity unlike almost any other in sport. It also creates another temptation to make the moment too large. The lesson from Paris is to resist that temptation.

Treat the tournament like a tournament. Prepare like champions. And enjoy the journey. That may be the most important change between Paris and Los Angeles.

The Road To LA28 Has Already Begun

And that road has already begun.

Brasher and Cruz are coming off a 2026 season that includes their third consecutive Manhattan Beach Open title and the AVP League Championship in Chicago a week ago. The pair has established itself as one of the leading American beach volleyball teams heading toward the next Olympic cycle. But championships alone won’t define their LA28 journey. The deeper objective is to arrive in Los Angeles (having learned from Paris) without being consumed by it.

This time, Cruz and Brasher intend to step onto the sand with everything they learned in Paris—and with a much clearer understanding that the Games are important precisely because they are a part of life, but only a part.