Larson leads former Huskers on Olympic VB team

Jordan Larson, a former Nebraska women’s volleyball star and current Huskers assistant coach, was named to her fourth U.S. Olympic team Wednesday for the Paris Games. She is one of three former Huskers on the team.

Larson, 37, led the Americans to their first Olympic gold medal in women’s indoor volleyball at the 2020 Tokyo Games (played in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). She was named the MVP and best outside hitter for the Tokyo Olympics.

As a college player, she won an NCAA title with Nebraska in 2006. With Team USA, she won Olympic silver in 2012 and Olympic bronze in 2016. Larson, who grew up in the small town of Hooper, Nebraska, is nicknamed “The Governor” for her popularity in her home state.

She is an assistant to longtime head coach John Cook at Nebraska, which played in front of a record-setting crowd of 92,003 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska, in August. The Huskers then made the NCAA final in December, falling to Texas.

Larson is one of eight Olympic veterans on coach Karch Kiraly’s 2024 team for the Paris Games.

“Our core group of 25 women’s national teamers has done great work over the past months, preparing to help bring out the best in each person around her, with an eye toward the Paris Olympics,” Kiraly said. “We are ecstatic for this group, and for our program.”

Another former Nebraska player, outside hitter Kelsey Robinson Cook, will be playing in her third Olympics. A third former Husker, libero Justine Wong-Orantes (who won an NCAA title in 2015), is competing in her second Olympics.

Also on the Olympic team for the second time are setter Jordyn Poulter (Illinois), opposite hitters Annie Drews (Purdue) and Jordan Thompson (Cincinnati) and middle blockers Chiaka Ogbogu (Texas) and Haleigh Washington (Penn State, 2014 NCAA title).

The four first-time Olympians are outside hitters Kathryn Plummer (Stanford, won NCAA titles in 2016, 2018, 2019) and Avery Skinner (Kentucky, won Wildcats’ and SEC’s first NCAA title in 2020), middle blocker Dana Rettke (led Wisconsin to its first NCAA title in 2021) and fellow former Badger Lauren Carlini, who finished her Wisconsin career in 2016.

Five alternates also were named, but only one will be selected to accompany the team to Paris and could substitute in for an injured player.

The U.S. women have won one Olympic gold medal (2020), three silvers (1984, 2008 and 2012) and two bronzes (1992 and 2016).

The women’s Olympic competition schedule and pools will be announced after the 2024 Volleyball Nations League preliminary rounds, which end June 16. The U.S. women play their final preliminary round of the VNL next week in Japan.