Beach Volleyball Icon April Ross Announces Retirement from Competition

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Oct. 17, 2024) – Beach volleyball icon April Ross, a three-time Olympic medalist, has announced that she is retiring from competition at the end of the AVP League season.

There will be a ceremony on Nov. 9 at the AVP League Championship at Dignity Health Sports Park in Los Angeles.

“It is with a very fulfilled and grateful heart, and also some tears, that I am announcing my retirement (after the end of this @avpbeach League season),” Ross wrote in an Instagram post. “18 years, 16 seasons, four quads 😳 I’m glad I can say I lived it to the fullest and that it was an absolute BLAST. At the same time, I’m in disbelief it’s (almost) over, it feels like it went by in a heartbeat.”

Ross, 42, played her first international beach match in 2006 after graduating from the University of Southern California.

She went on to take the silver medal with Jen Kessy at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. She won bronze with Kerry Walsh Jennings in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. She won gold with Alix Klineman at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Overall, Ross won 27 gold medals in FIVB events, 19 silver and nine bronze.

Ross played her final two international matches in 2022 before having a son in 2023. In 2024, she convinced Klineman, who also had a baby in 2023, to play on the AVP Tour and the AVP League with her.

“I didn’t want to leave the sport just by fading away,” Ross told NBC Sports. “I wanted to play again, if only to retire. Essentially, that’s what this season has turned out to be, kind of like a farewell tour.”

Ross has accepted the head beach volleyball coaching position at El Camino College in California.