'Olympics is going to elevate all of us:' Why women's volleyball could take off

PARIS — When more than 91,000 fans packed Memorial Stadium last August to set a women’s sporting event attendance record, Jordan Larson couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy. 

Larson, one of the best volleyball players in American history, helped build five-time national champion Nebraska into the college volleyball powerhouse it is now. And though the Midwest, and Nebraska in particular, is known for its stellar support of volleyball, Larson never got to play in front of that many people in her home country, let alone her home state. 

“Just talking about it gives me goosebumps,” Larson, USA Volleyball captain who’s charged with helping the Americans defend their gold medal when Olympic volleyball pool play starts on July 29, told USA TODAY Sports. “It’s amazing to me, when you put it in front of people, what they’ll watch. That attention and exposure — like, my (professional) teammates overseas were talking about it. That’s something I never had.”

But she’s hopeful that could change soon. 

The Paris Games, which are expected to be dominated by female athletes, arrive at a terrific time for women’s sports. There has never been more interest and investment, evidenced by the record-breaking TV ratings, booming media deals and popular conversation.

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

This has been particularly true in women’s basketball, which has capitalized on the popularity of WNBA rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, whose college rivalry sparked a rabid following that’s come with them to the pros. 

Now the question is will indoor volleyball be the next women’s sport to take off? 

The signs are positive: Volleyball is already the most popular team sport among high school girls, according to the National Federation of High Schools, churning out tons of Division I-caliber athletes every year. For the first time last season the NCAA championship — where Texas swept Nebraska for its second consecutive title — was broadcast on ABC, drawing 1.7 million viewers.

ESPN has committed to continuing to put the championship game, and potentially earlier rounds of the NCAA volleyball tournament, on network TV in the coming year. The Big Ten has been a big driver in volleyball attendance in particular, and will become even more influential next season when it adds four schools.  

And by this time next year, the U.S. will be home to not one but two professional leagues, finally giving the best American players a post-college option that doesn’t involve months of living overseas. 

Larson likes the odds of her sport exploding in popularity soon — and in people tuning into it. 

“Volleyball is definitely on the rise, and the Olympics is going to elevate all of us,” Larson said, joking that to her, the reason to sign up for volleyball is obvious: “I mean, it’s a lot less running than basketball and soccer, that’s huge I think. It makes it more appealing.” 

In all seriousness, Larson thinks volleyball has universal appeal not only because of the jaw-dropping athleticism displayed regularly by its athletes but because of something else often preached by everyone from successful business people to parents: Teamwork is the name of the game. Volleyball is the ultimate team game because in most instances, three players on the receiving team touch the ball nearly every time it crosses the net. 

Ironically, when it comes to growing the sport, Paul Sunderland thinks that might be part of what’s holding it back. 

“By the nature of the sport, it’s not very star driven,” Sunderland said. “Three players touch the ball every time it’s put in play, which means there are very few opportunities for a (volleyball) version of Caitlin Clark or A’ja Wilson or Angel Reese to absolutely dominate the game.

“Everybody who’s a sports fan loves stars, and it’s hard to create those in our sport.”

Sunderland, who won gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Games as an outside hitter for the American men, will call his ninth Olympics from the NBC broadcast booth this Games. He has had a front row seat — literally — to the game he loves never getting the recognition stateside he said it deserves.  

“Volleyball on the women’s side exclusively has been incredibly popular for a long time, but it’s really just now that the public and media are catching on,” Sunderland said. 

Sunderland likes to tell a story about how, at a speaking engagement one time, he asked a group of American kids to name the starting lineup for the U.S. women’s Olympic volleyball team. They looked at him dumbfounded. 

“If I’d been in Belgrade or Moscow or Beijing or Tokyo, they could all do it, they could name the American team, because those international matches that happen every summer with the Volleyball Nations League, those matches are all on television in those country,” Sunderland said. “Over here, it’s on ESPN, Fox Sports, etc. to set up and buy volleyball rights. 

“I just think it’s an absolute travesty that our U.S. women win their first ever gold in Tokyo, and since then, the U.S. women’s Olympic team, and those athletes, have not been on television. That was 2021!”

But Katlyn Gao has a plan to change that. 

Gao, a Harvard Business School grad whose work history includes management stints at Lululemon, Sephora and Walgreens, co-founded and became the CEO of League One Volleyball (LOVB), a new professional league, in November 2019. 

She has big plans for LOVB, which will begin play in 2025. Like, really big. Gao can imagine a future where pro volleyball in America isn’t just popular but a major pro sport. 

“Volleyball is a very easy sport to get excited about,” said Gao, who grew up in China in the 1980s where Jenny Lang Ping, better known as “The Iron Hammer” for her thundering kills as an outside hitter, was “just as iconic as Michael Jordan was in Chicago.” 

LOVB is slated to start play on Jan. 8, 2025 with six inaugural teams. Its model is somewhat like European soccer, with youth clubs serving as the foundation for each pro team. Gao believes this model will help LOVB become "the next major pro sports league in the U.S."

LOVB will partner with ESPN to broadcast its games, a key part of growing the new league even though Gao said part of the skyrocketing interest in women’s sports is directly related to the democratization of media, as streaming platforms make all sports more accessible (theoretically). 

“You don’t watch basketball at the Olympics and then say, oh I wonder where they are the rest of the year? No, you’re watching them because you watched them all season,” said Gao, who is committed to doing the same with the Olympic volleyball team. “That’s why our ESPN partnership is incredibly important; they’re an anchor for us. The exposure between quads and beyond quads really matters.” 

LOVB comes on the heels of another professional league, the Pro Volleyball Federation (PVF), which just wrapped up its first season in May, crowning the Omaha Supernovas the first champions in the seven-team league. More than 11,600 fans showed up for the first PVF match, and the league drew impressively in its first season; it plans to add three more teams in 2025.

One edge LOVB has over PVF: 17 Paris Olympians are already committed to play for LOVB, including nine of the 12 members of Team USA. (Salary amounts and structure have not been announced yet, but those details are expected in the coming months.)

Gao described having two American pro leagues, after decades of not having any, as “fantastic.” 

“Nothing gets built in a big way if you have a scarcity mindset,” she said. “What’s good for the sport overall is just more awareness and more attention paid to it.” 

Sunderland is thrilled by this, too. But he is adamant that only one pro league can survive and is convinced that at some point, the two will merge. 

There’s precedent for his concern: The WNBA launched during the ABL’s second season and only the W, which is financially backed by the NBA, survived. It is now in its 28th season. 

Meanwhile, while pro women’s soccer has seen the creation and downfall of multiple leagues — the NWSL, now in its 12th season, is the third league since the historic 1999 World Cup — that have never been in direct competition with each other. 

Another positive that Gao argues sets volleyball apart from other women’s pro sports: It’s never compared to the men’s equivalent. There’s a reason, Gao said, that LOVB doesn’t have the word “women’s” anywhere in its league name: It’s not needed. Women already dominate this sport. 

But given everything that’s percolating under the surface, can volleyball dominate the American sports landscape? 

To know for sure, check back in six months. 

Contributing: Steve Berkowitz

Email Lindsay Schnell at [email protected] and follow her on social media @Lindsay_Schnell

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