Brazil’s Talita Rocha, left, celebrates after blocking a shot from Switzerland’s Joana Heidrich, right, during a women’s beach volleyball quarterfinal match at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, . Walsh Jennings has won three consecutive gold medals and is looking for her first with Ross. The German men won gold in London.
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By the final point, you could see the dejection in the faces of Walsh and Ross, knowing their gold-medal hopes were about to be dashed.
Brazil won 2-0 in sets, but the sets were tight at 22-20 and 21-18.
After each of her 26 Olympic match victories, Walsh Jennings had made a habit of giving a high-five to all the courtside workers and volunteers at the beach venue.
“He was the best in everything”, she says with no hesitation. “I know I could have done a lot more”. “You’re not going to win a match against an awesome team or even a mediocre team if you pass like that”.
“That was what kind of what set the tone and we never got our mojo on anything else”. I don’t even realize what it means yet.
But this time, the road to the Olympics was much tougher.
The No. 1 ranked team, Larissa and Talita of Brazil, will take on Germany’s Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst in the other semifinal.
They kept their chances alive after losing the first set and falling behind 19-17 in the second – putting the Swiss two points from a spot in the semifinals. Instead, with the dynasty over, there is work to do starting a new one. We have Agatha and Barbara in two days and we are so excited. “We never gave up, but we never got our space”, Walsh Jennings said. “I do not want to be sexy, I want to kick butt and so that’s what I’m thinking and that’s what my partners are thinking when we create these bikinis”.
“Tonight, they rose to the occasion”, Walsh Jennings said. I certainly did not and there is no excuse for it. “It was just awful execution”.
With a packed stadium chanting and shouting boisterously for their team, the Brazilians simply outplayed the Americans, making dazzling one-handed diving saves and extraordinary blocks while Walsh Jennings struggled to pass the ball. “They wear the skimpy clothes and the swimsuit.’ And it definitely does, I think, rub women the wrong way”, she said. “They were just sharper”.
For breakfast, Walsh Jennings likes to start off her day with a thick smoothie full of vegetables. The late starting time, midnight locally to quench NBC’s desire to show the match in NY prime time, only gave the spectators more time to. um, prepare.
“To not go to the finals of an Olympic Games is absolutely devastating”, she said.
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“My partner is the best partner in the world”, Walsh Jennings said. “My husband and I want to have a leadership academy”. I don’t know if I will.
