The Americans April Ross and Alix Klineman won gold in beach volleyball at the Olympic Games.

The team, against which Olympic champions Laura Ludwig and Margareta Kozuch were eliminated in the quarter-finals, clearly defeated Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy from Australia 2-0 (21:15, 21:16) on Friday.

Thereby Ross completed her Olympic medal set.

The 39-year-old won silver with partner Jennifer Kessy in London in 2012 and bronze with Kerri Walsh in Rio in 2016.

For the USA it was the seventh Olympic gold in beach volleyball.

The bronze medal went to the European champions Joana Heidrich and Anouk Verge-Depre on Friday.

The Swiss duo defeated Tina Graudina / Anastasija Kravcenoka from Latvia 2-0 (21:19, 21:15).

On the way to the precious metal, Heidrich / Verge-Depre had defeated the second German duo Karla Borger / Julia Sude in the preliminary round.

Laura Ludwig, who had triumphed in Rio with Kira Walkenhorst, failed in the round of the last eight at Kozuch's side in two tight sets.

Against Klineman / Ross, the two Hamburg women lost 19:21, 19:21.

According to beach volleyball sports director Niclas Hildebrand, a generation change is now imminent among women, and the association is only aiming high again for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

The former beach volleyball Olympic champion Julius Brink has meanwhile harshly criticized the scheduling of the Olympic medal games in the midday heat of Tokyo.

“The beach volleyball players are being carted out of here because the big overseas donor, NBC, has bought Prime Time,” said the ARD expert during the broadcast of the women's bronze game: “It takes on a train that makes me feel extremely sick and makes me mad. "

The match for third place took place on Friday at 10 a.m. local time in the port of Tokyo, an hour and a half later the final between Alix Klineman / April Ross (USA) and Mariafe Artacho del Solar / Taliqua Clancy (Australia) took place.

"We see impaired players in the heat here, I also find it very negligent to schedule the matches like this somewhere," said Brink, who won gold together with Jonas Reckermann in London in 2012.

"I am not criticizing the fact that it is warm here, everyone knows that," added the 39-year-old.

However, there were opportunities to “play the games differently for health reasons, but they are not used for purely commercial reasons”.