Sarah Pavan, Olympic beach volleyball player from Kitchener, Ont., announces retirement [Video]

Two-time Olympian Sarah Pavan announced her retirement Monday, ending a 25-year volleyball career that included play in both indoor team competition and the beach volleyball discipline.

Pavan, who won a world beach title in 2019, finished fifth at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and the Tokyo Games in 2021.

“Volleyball has always been so much more than a sport to me,” Pavan said in a statement. “It has been my social circle, my safe space, my classroom, my vehicle of self-expression, my career, and my first love.”

The Kitchener, Ont., native made her junior national indoor team debut at age 14 and made history two years later as the youngest player to be selected to the Canadian women’s indoor team.

She became a four-time first-team all-American at the University of Nebraska and spent a decade on the indoor professional scene before switching to beach volleyball in 2013.

Pavan, 38, won …