But this time, the road to the Olympics was much tougher.
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Is this it for Kerri Walsh Jennings?
With their second win in six global meetings with Talita and Larissa, Ross and Walsh Jennings joined gold medalists Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst of Germany and silver medalists Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas of Brazil on the Rio 2016 Olympic Games women’s Beach Volleyball podium. They also stumbled with some unforced errors, including a missed serve from Ross and one memorable play that saw both Americans go for the same serve, collide, and fall to the ground as the Brazilian crowd cheered. “It was because I wasn’t passing the ball”, she said. “When we were introduced, I felt my kids, I felt my parents, I felt April’s family”.
“We needed that so bad”, says Bernard Deixeira, a businessman from northern Brazil, after watching Seixas and Bednarczuk clinch the match from the stands. Walsh Jennings didn’t sleep last night, and Ross spent much of the day in bed visualizing how she could motivate for the bronze-medal match. Brazil’s Agatha and Barbara are the reigning world champions will get the silver medal.
In Rio, Walsh Jennings and Ross entered as the No. 3-ranked team and won their first five matches, dropping just one set in the process.
The 38-year-old U.S. Olympic legend and partner April Ross overcome a rough start to salvage their tournament with the bronze medal, after a 2-1 (17-21, 21-17, 15-9) win over Brazil’s Larissa and Talita on Wednesday night in Copacabana Beach.
But regardless of the outcome, few can argue that Walsh Jennings is an Olympic legend, and that her recovery from injury at age 38 was nothing short of fantastic. “That was what kind of set the tone, and we couldn’t get our mojo on anything else”.
A new approach to strength training. Although for Kerri Walsh Jennings, you wondered if they ever would. Previous year she underwent surgery for a torn labrum and capsule that kept her out of play for several months. “My instructor is a Master Jedi; she’s just so rad”.
Walsh Jennings gave it right back, saying, “April won this tonight”, and crediting her partner’s relentless defense. The defeat marked Walsh Jennings’ first loss of her Olympic career.
Down 18-15, the Americans needed to find a run to get back into it, but it never came.
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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.
