The return of Cardinal and Gold: Cheng and Hughes follow “gut feeling” to revive teen bond and soar up the ranks
The newly crowned beach volleyball world champion duo has taken the world rankings by storm since pairing up again in fall 2022 and are now dreaming of extending USA's perfect medal streak in the sport at the Olympic Games.
Beach Volleyball
Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes are proof that friends never truly say goodbye.
Born in the same year and growing up a 30-minute drive away from each other, Cheng and Hughes started playing beach volleyball together while at school. But the childhood fairytale was not to be - their successful youth career ended in a breakup.
Four years and several playing partners later, both Cheng and Hughes said they felt their shared story was still far from over.
That "gut feeling" has not led them astray. Since reuniting in fall 2022, Cheng and Hughes are closer than ever.
And it shows. The duo won gold on Sunday night (15 October) at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Mexico, after beating the Brazilians Ana Patricia/Duda 2-0 in the final, thus becoming the first USA beach volleyball players to win a world title since 2009.
"We have really good chemistry. Our styles of play complement each other really well," Cheng told Olympics.com. "We're both at the same stages of life and on the same page with a lot of things. And I think that's just helped us fight hard together and fight for each other on and off the court, which I think is really important."
Winning bronze at the FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships in 2013 was one of Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes' first major successes together.
Common beginnings: The California teens who became "Cardinal and Gold"
On paper, Cheng (nee Claes) and Hughes could be confused for each other. Both were born in 1995, one year before their sport made its Olympic debut at the Atlanta Games, and raised in Southern California.
Hughes started playing beach volleyball in Huntington Beach, while Cheng preferred the hard courts. It was not until the middle of high school that Cheng's focus changed from indoor volleyball to beach volleyball, which is also when she met Hughes.
The two started playing youth tournaments together, winning bronze at the 2013 FIVB U19 World Championships and the FIVB U21 World Championships a year later. In 2016, they reached the top step of the podium at the World University Games.
Their success in college earned Cheng and Hughes the nickname "Cardinal and Gold" - a nod to their hair colour, which also matched the school colours of their alma mater, University of Southern California (USC). they won NCAA titles with USC in 2016 and 2017.
But then came the breakup.
After falling apart in 2018, Hughes paired with Summer Ross and Cheng with Sarah Sponcil.
Cheng and Sponcil made their Olympic debut together at Tokyo 2020, crashing out in the round of 16. Hughes and Ross also tried to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games, but their hopes were dashed after Ross suffered a back injury in 2019.
Cheng and Hughes: Stronger together
While Cheng and Hughes played with other partners for four years, they continued to see - and sometimes battle - each other at competitions.
"We were always around each other because we're competitors," Hughes told Olympics.com. "And it was definitely a lot of competitive fire there, but I think we were always nice to each other...... When it was time to get together, I just had that gut feeling."
As did Cheng, who reached out to her former partner in 2022 with a proposition to team up again.
"Just a gut feeling," Cheng said of deciding to give their playing partnership another try. "I prayed about it a lot and I felt really at peace with this decision. Listening to your gut, I think, is really important."
Important and also beneficial, as Cheng and Hughes' recent results have shown.
Cheng credits part of that success to the years that they have spent apart.
"It was four years of being our own people and learning about ourselves and figuring out what kind of volleyball we want to play," she said. "It was perfect timing when we sat down. Our styles of play just naturally, individually, formed the chemistry."
Next goals: Putting a ring on it
As similar as their backgrounds are, there is one major difference between Cheng and Hughes. To spot this difference, it is enough to look at Cheng's right foream.
"What does it mean to be an Olympian? It's a very surreal feeling getting to go compete on the biggest stage against the rest of the world with your country on your back," said Cheng, who has the Olympic rings tattooed on her arm. "To fight for an Olympic gold medal, I think is something like 0.001 per cent of people get to do, so it's a really special feeling."
Hughes is hoping to become one of those 0.001 per cent.
"It would probably be the best feeling in the world," she said. "It's my number one goal, and to get to do it with Kelly is even more special. So we just got to keep moving forward and keep doing well in tournaments and hope we'll stay on track to get there."
The pressure is high for the reunited pair as USA players have won at least one medal at every Olympic Games beach volleyball tournament since the sport was include in the programme in 1996.
By winning the title in Mexico, the American women's pair have secured an Olympic quota spot for Paris 2024.
"Every opportunity we get on the court together is really fun, and hopefully our best memory will be winning Worlds," Hughes said.
*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024. More information on the Olympic qualification pathway in beach volleyball is available here.