“We know we had to fight with a three-time gold medal victor”. The pair won a third gold at London in 2012, when they played next to the prime minister’s residence at No. 10 Downing Street, and while Walsh Jennings was pregnant with her third child. Walsh Jennings powered ahead at the net to take the the lead at 7-6 and the USA women continued their run to pull ahead by two points while the Brazilian women struggled to keep up.
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“There’s only one medal in a bronze match and we wanted it so badly”, Ross said.
“We were devastated the night before, literally devastated”, Walsh Jennings said. I’ve been served aggressively this whole tournament, when people serve at me, and so has April (Ross). “I think that brought about a new weapon for us”. Ross stuck with her friend even after Walsh Jennings underwent a fifth surgery on her right shoulder in the fall.
“It’s our final now”, said Ross, though she expects Larissa and Talita will be equally bitter about not playing for gold.
Agatha and Barbara were the world champions in 2015, so it would be hard to characterize the Americans’ loss as an “upset”, but when it comes to Walsh Jennings in the Olympics, any loss has to be considered a surprise.
Walsh Jennings hugged and kissed her husband, Casey Jennings, after successfully making it onto the podium for the fourth Olympics in a row, this time without her retired former partner Misty May-Treanor.
The third-seeded Ross and Walsh Jennings rebounded from a disappointing semifinal performance 22 hours earlier to score a 17-21, 21-17, 15-9 victory, in a heart-throbbing 54 minutes, over top-seeded and heavily-favored Talita Antunes and Larissa Franca of Brazil in the women’s bronze medal match at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
As for Walsh Jennings’ future after these Olympics, she wouldn’t commit one way or the other after the semifinal match. “But we never got our space”. Some of you must be wondering “How old is Kerri Walsh Jennings?”. “My instructor is a Master Jedi; she’s just so rad”. “Bra-Sil!” and rolled into the Copacabana bars, Walsh Jennings made sure to congratulate and thank all the officials and volunteers on her way out of the arena, as always.
Eventually, it was a pep-talk from her coach, who reminded the women that they didn’t have to face the risk of leaving these Olympics empty-handed alone.
It would be easy enough to say Kerri Walsh Jennings finally had age catch up to her.
Despite losing to Brazil, Jennings may get one more medal in this Olympics. “I need to keep everything freely moving so nothing gets bound up”.
“It was very poor execution on my part in the most fundamental part of the game”, she said.
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Maximizing her mental muscles. Walsh Jennings stuffed Talita to post an 11-8 U.S. lead, before Ross bounced a shot off the sand for a big four-point lead at 13-9.
