Best friends do everything together. In the case of Team USA's Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth, that includes playing at . The beach volleyball duo first formed a partnership-turned-friendship at Louisiana State University in 2020, and went pro in 2021.
Now, at only 26 years old, they're in the home stretch of Olympic training, spending the last few weeks prepping for the Games in the Louisiana heat. "It's a little warm here, so we have cramped every single day," Kloth says, politely downplaying the 75 percent humidity. "It really is a grind in the best possible way.
Every single thing, even if it is tougher, challenging — these are all the things that we wanted." Of the essentials the pair is planning to pack for Paris, sunglasses are at the top of their list. "I don't think I could play this sport without them," Nuss says, showing off a pair with pink polarized lenses from 's new line of sports performance sunglasses.
"We probably will, throughout the games, be wearing different ones depending on what the sun is doing." People might assume beach volleyball players wear glasses purely for protection from the sun, but according to Nuss and Kloth, the real reason is actually much more layered. "Almost like goggles, our glasses are necessary," Kloth says, explaining how glasses protect from sand, sun, wayward volleyballs, and everything in between.
"It [can be] the smallest grain of sand, but it can just irritate your eyes so much." Nuss and Kloth prefer Zenni for the , 180-degr.