COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — In the summer of 2020, the IOC decided to postpone the Summer games until 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Now, as summer approaches, so too do the long-anticipated Tokyo Olympics and familiar faces of the Penn State program.
Alumnus and Team USA 2016 bronze medalist Matt Anderson will be participating in the indoor volleyball tournament along with fellow alums Max Holt and Aaron Russell. Hailing from West Seneca, New York, Anderson has been a part of the game since he was 15 years old and has been on the national team for almost the same amount of time.
"I've been playing indoor volleyball since I was 15 years old, been playing professionally for 13 years and also 13 years with the national team," Anderson said. "I have been to two Olympics, and won a bronze in Rio. I've been playing for a long time, and in a bunch of different countries professionally. I would say probably my favorite win is obviously the bronze medal in Rio with Team USA."
Anderson started to play professionally following his junior season at Penn State, forgoing his senior season. Since then, Anderson has been the United States men's program's leading scorer every season since 2011 and at 25 was the youngest player on the 2012 United States men's Olympic team.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, Anderson was playing professionally in Italy and went home to his wife and son. Anderson faced some setbacks entering the following season, yet with that in mind he is currently training in Southern California to prepare both mentally and physically for the games.
"Since the pandemic hit, and our pro season - at that point in time I was in Italy in Modena - was canceled, I went back home to my wife and son and didn't do much," Anderson said. "We're all kind of in a holding pattern at that point in time with quarantine issues and if gyms were going to open back up. Eventually, I went over to my pro team for the following season in Shanghai, and had some mental health issues where I decided to step away from the game again, similar to what I did in 2015. From that experience, I had a really good rebound. I've set myself up for being able to put myself into the team. Basically, I approached this offseason with that in mind. For the last seven weeks now, I've been out here in Southern California where our training center is and lifting - four days a week - training as much as I can on the court. Even though it's just me and a couple coaches, some guys are coming back from the pro seasons at this point in time and will be getting in the gym (soon)."
In terms of the regulations the teams will have to follow, the preparation for what is to come is different than Rio, Anderson said. Both the women's and men's programs are qualified for this year's Olympics but they are preparing for the COVID-19 protocols and life in the bubble will be new this year.
"I think we all know the elephant in the room is the COVID protocols that we're all going to have to go through, not only when we get to the Games, but leading up in the trainings," Anderson said. "We have both the men's and women's programs in the same training facilities and scheduling to limit as much contact as possible just to keep everybody safe. I think that's been changed a lot. Luckily, both of us are already qualified for the Olympics and the only competition between now and then is our VNL bubble in Italy. So we'll have a little bit of a preview I believe of what the Olympics will be like with that bubble in VNL, but that being said, we won't really know until we get to the games and how it all goes out."
Having been a part of professional volleyball for over a decade, Anderson has noticed an evolution in how the sport is played. The biggest change he noticed was how the speed a team plays at can throw an opponent off.
"When I came into the international scene, the biggest upgrade from the previous Olympics was the BIC — the back row quick — out of the center of the court," Anderson said. "What that did was open up offenses to the pins."
"What I believe has changed the most in that time has been the speed to the pins and the stress that puts on the opposing team," Anderson added. "Then with that speed increase, you've lost kind of those big, powerful players like Clay Stanley that hit a higher, slower ball. But you see the guys like a Stetson from Bulgaria, who's traditionally in that role like Clay was, step up his game and start hitting a ball that's faster. I think players themselves are adapting to the system, but overall the speed has just increased quite a bit."
As for the future, Anderson wants his family to be a part of the rest of his volleyball journey. With the hopes to have fans in the 2024 Olympics and the time until those games being three years compared to four, Anderson anticipates competing again in Paris.
"I started a family with my wife a little over a year ago," Anderson said. "The thought of the grind of our overseas professional seasons, coming back to the States playing with the national team and not really having much time off to be active in my children's lives definitely came to the forefront of my brain in thinking about my future as a volleyball player. That being said, not allowing international fans to this Olympic Games, I want my family to be part of it. I think as long as my body holds up, and I am still relevant in the sport to make the team. I'm still having a lot of fun and to be able to bring my family along with me on this journey has been nothing but something that I'm really grateful for. I believe I will be trying for Paris 2024, it is three years away. I am turning 34 in two weeks so who knows, but that is my goal at this point in time and maybe Los Angeles in 2028."
