USA men’s volleyball, Utahn too, eliminated early in 2020 Olympics

Olympic Rings at the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee Training Center and Headquarters in Colorado Springs, CO. Photo: Dave Kim

TOKYO, Japan. — In straight sets, Argentina’s men’s volleyball team sent their opponent packing back to the United States. That Team USA includes Garrett Maugutufia who has spent a considerable amount of time in Park City. He trained and competed on Utah Olympic Park’s bobsled track in the run-up to the Lillehammer, Norway Winter Olympic Games in which he represented America-Samoa.

Today, in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games, representing the USA his team hoped to continue their streak of competing in the Olympic quarterfinals since the year 2000 but Argentina had other ideas.

The first set was 25 – 21, the second set was 25 – 23 and the third set, which was decided on a line ball touch video review that landed in Argentina’s favor, was 25 – 23. In this must-win game, the action leading up to that fateful video review final point was tied at 20, then again at 21, at 22, and tied one last time at 23.

Beloved USA Coach John Speraw, wrapped his arms around one of his tearful athletes after the final whistle. Speraw told NBC in the mixed-zone, “It’s hard, it’s been a tough 18 months, it just wasn’t meant to be. This was not a great tournament for us. We’ll try to do better next time. We were trying to do the best job we could with the circumstances we had. A lot of people had it worse.”

Maugutufia’s Team USA teammate David Smith, the relatively short six foot six tall middle blocker wears two hearing aides. In any other Olympic cycle this fact may not pose added challenges. That said, in Tokyo 2020, sideline players and coaches for all sports must mandatorily wear masks covering their mouths and noses. Smith, who reads lips, had his coaches lower their masks, albeit briefly, in order to verbally communicate their directions to him specifically.

In the middle of the third set, with America down 9 – 12, Argentina’s star men’s volleyball player, Conte ran and defended a ball back over the net. In so doing, he crashed into, onto, over, and landed partially under the plastic and metal knee-high boundary barriers on which the Tokyo 2020 insignia is written. Although it is a widely accepted courtesy to stop play to see that athletes can get back up of their own volition, the US did question the ref after Conte did so. The question went nowhere and Conte went back to the court.

Later in the set, with the USA up 16 – 15, Argentina tied it up with what the NBC Commentator called, the biggest stuff block by any nation in the entire Olympic tournament.

Eliminating the Americans out of what many saw as the toughest group much earlier than many people expected, Argentina advanced into the quarterfinals for their third consecutive Games.