Reigning Olympic champion April Ross has been replaced on the entry list for June’s world beach volleyball championships in Rome.
Ross, who won gold in Tokyo with Alix Klineman, was entered at worlds with Emily Day, whom she has played with since Klineman underwent shoulder surgery in January.
Ross’ name has been replaced on the entry list by Emily Stockman, who is now entered with Day.
Ross’ agency did not respond to a request for comment on the change. Two weeks after Ross’ name was replaced, USA Volleyball said that Ross withdrew due to an injury that it did not specify.
Ross, 39, played in the last seven world championships dating to 2007. She won gold with Jen Kessy in 2009, silver with Lauren Fendrick in 2017 and silver with Klineman in 2019.
The Olympic silver- and bronze-medal teams from Australia and Switzerland are both entered at worlds.
The other U.S. Olympic women’s team members are also entered at worlds with their new partners. Kelly Cheng (née Claes) is with Betsi Flint. Sarah Sponcil is with Terese Cannon. Kelley Kolinske and Sara Hughes and Day and Stockman round out the U.S. quartet of women’s teams.
On the men’s side, the entries include Olympic gold medalists Anders Mol and Christian Sorum of Norway and bronze medalists Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan of Qatar. The silver medalists, Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy, are not entered due to a ban on Russians for the war in Ukraine.
The U.S. men’s teams are Taylor Crabb, who qualified for the Olympics but didn’t play after testing positive for COVID in Tokyo, and two-time indoor Olympian Taylor Sander and Chaim Schalk and Theo Brunner.
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