Beach volleyball legend Kerri Walsh Jennings said she had “no idea” whether she’d be back for a fifth Olympics after bouncing back from her first ever defeat to win bronze in Rio on Thursday.
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With the end of her flawless Olympic beach volleyball record – Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor lost only one set while sweeping to three gold medals – the loss Tuesday night left the three-time champion in a funk.
Speaking after their 17-21, 21-17, 15-9 third-place play-off win over Brazil’s Talita Rocha and Larissa Franca at Copacabana beach, Walsh Jennings deflected talk about retirement.
“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. That’s the day she and her volleyball partner April Ross had to summon the will to play in what Ross called “the hardest match to play in sports”.
“I’m combining what I’ve I always wanted to be, which is a working mom, a loving wife and a kick-butt athlete”, Walsh Jennings said.
“I haven’t spent one second thinking about that”, she said without the least bit of irritation. The defeat represented the first loss for Walsh Jennings in her Olympic career.
“Last night I was subpar”, she said.
From that point on, Talita and Larissa scored only three more points with Ross and Walsh Jennings producing 10 scores on the next 15 serves in the set that featured six ties and three lead changes.
Like Brazil, the Americans have now medaled in every Olympic Beach Volleyball competition since the introduction of the sport into the Summer Games program in 1996 at Atlanta. Walsh Jennings won her fourth consecutive Olympic medal.
Although she and Ross didn’t get the medal they wanted, their performance spoke to everything that makes the Olympics compelling. Brazil has clinched 13 medals, though only two gold, with a chance to add two more in Rio.
After the match, Jennings refused to speculate on whether this Olympics would be her last. “I felt my parents, I felt April’s family, and it was a huge boost for me”, she said, burying her face in the flag that was draped over her shoulders as Ross recounted a discussion that included playing for those who serve the United States in the military. “He hit the heart”. “He made it not about the match; he made it about going out there and doing our best”. “The bronze medal match is the gnarliest match I’ve ever played in my career because either you go home with a handsome medal or you get nothing”.
Brazil’s loss still leaves the home country with two beach volleyball medals on home sand.
But the Brazilian duo was surprised by Germany’s Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst in the semifinals, getting beaten soundly in straight sets, and then later that night the Americans also fell, to Brazil’s younger team of Agatha and Barbara.
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In the men’s tournament, Brazil’s Bruno Schmidt and Alison Cerutti will face Italian opposition in the final after the world champions edged out their Dutch rivals.
