Walsh Jennings, who turned 38 yesterday, and teammate April Ross were playing against Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas in Gstaad, Switzerland, when Walsh Jennings dislocated her shoulder for the second time in two months, and both Brazilians encouraged her to keep fighting; Barbara saying, “you are strong, you can do this”.
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Agatha and Barbara won 22-20, 21-18 to earn a matchup in the final against Germany. And with gold medals in eight events, Stanford is now tied for the seventh-best “country” in the world, only behind: the U.S. (30), Great Britain (19), China (19), Russian Federation (12), Germany (12), and Japan (10). But after 26 straight victories and three gold medals, her mission to win a fourth Olympic title slipped away on the sands of Copacabana Beach.
For the first time in her career, she’ll need to settle for bronze, but even that is no sure thing.
The packed stands on Copacabana beach roared after every Brazilian point, the crowd backing the last local shot at gold after Germany eliminated Brazil’s other team, Larissa Franca and Talita Antunes, in the other semi.
Walsh Jennings struggled with her passing throughout the medal round, including on Tuesday night when the pair lost to Brazil’s second-seeded team.
“I think it will take some time to realize what we did here”, Ludwig said. The U.S. men’s basketball team cheered them on, and serenaded her with Happy Birthday after the match.
Walsh Jennings had never lost an Olympic beach volleyball match before tonight. Couple that with the woman’s soccer team falling to Sweden in their semifinal, it felt as if the entire nation’s hopes were riding with Agatha and Barbara.
Alison and Bruno will play the victor of the night semifinal between Russian Federation and Italy.
“It’s insane what 24 hours can do”, Walsh Jennings said after she and April Ross beat Brazil’s Talita and Larissa 17-21, 21-17, 15-9 on Wednesday night.
Brazil’s loss still leaves the home country with two beach volleyball medals on home sand.
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“It was really important winning the first set and we knew we had to have patience”, said Ludwig.
