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While the BYU cougar connections play on, in the men's Olympic indoor volleyball tournament, the joy ride is over for Bountiful's Jake Gibb.
It's been an amazing first Olympic odyssey for the man who chucked a promising business career to move to the beaches of Southern California and worked his way up the beaches of sand volleyball, landing near the top.
Gibb blew through the group play unbeaten but lost to the defending gold medal Brazil team last night in the quarterfinals of medal-round play.
"Coming in here, I didn't know how to play this Olympic volleyball, but it has sure been fun, and it's been a learning process. And I will not trade it for anything in the world," Gibb said.
After losing to the team, Gibb said, "This is the toughest part, I don't want it to be over. I want to keep playing. I want to lose sleep at night and have the butterflies walking into that stadium one more time. So now we just take the positives out of it I guess.
And there are a lot of positive. In China, Gibb has the support of 11 family members and countless friends. He took the party from California and Bountiful to China. "That's been the greatest part about it is sharing it with all these guys sharing it with my wife here. And that is what I'll take away from this," he said.
Gibb's wife, Jane, said, "We're very excited. We've all had our fun and everything. We couldn't be more proud of him. It has been a long ride the last year and a half it is a great way to be here. We are in the Olympics and it has been really exciting for all of us."
His dad, told us, "Yeah. it has been a good trip. Winning is more fun though."
Gibb also gave a shout out to his friends and family in Bountiful. "I just got a lot of support from Utah, and I really appreciate it," he said.
"We kept saying, ‘Jay, get a job. There are a lot of guys that play volleyball have jobs," his dad said. Then his mom chimed in, "Sometimes it is not good to listen to your parents."
The loss does give Gibb a few extra days of family time in Beijing, but then it is back to the U.S. on to Saturday. He'll be back on the beach volleyball tour in Cincinnati next week.
