Walsh Jennings and partner April Ross were relegated to the third-place game by Brazil’s reigning world champions, who beat the Americans in straight sets on Tuesday night to advance to a gold medal matchup with Germany.
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“Devastating is a pretty huge word, but it pretty much captures how I felt last night”, Walsh Jennings said. “Because everything has been exposed”.
Walsh Jennings is 38 and will be 42 by the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
To get that attractive medal, they beat the top-ranked team of Larissa and Talita from Brazil (Larissa Franca Maestrini and Talita da Rocha Antunes are known by their first names), 2-1 (17-21, 21-17, 15-9). “That’s unacceptable”, says Walsh Jennings.
Watch the women’s beach volleyball bronze medal match at 9:00 p.m. ET.
“We needed that so bad”, Brazilian fan Bernard Deixeira told Time magazine on Tuesday after Seixas and Bednarczuk, known exclusively by the first names in their home country, beat the Americans in straight sets (22-20, 21-18). Their team was down in the sixth and final inning when his sister hit a double to the top of the wall to clear the bases for a victory over Aptos. “Fantastic!” she said, adding that the atmosphere reflected what it is to be from here. The beach volleyball venue is located directly atop the Copacabana sand. In a particularly bad stretch, the Brazilians leaped out to a lead they wouldn’t surrender, winning the set 21-17. For every spike by Ross or Walsh Jennings, the Brazilians were there, keeping the ball aloft. Unable to sleep. Cursing and crying and blaming herself after falling short of her goal to win a fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal.
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.
Set point Walsh Jennings/Ross and they take it 21-17 and we head to the tie-break. 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.
So what does the future hold for Walsh Jennings?
“We had so many opportunities”, Ross said.
Afterward, they praised each other in what has blossomed into a tight-knit partnership.
Kerri Walsh Jennings has the most Olympic experience between the two pairs.
They relied on each other the entire season but perhaps no more than in the spotlight Wednesday.
Ross said she and Walsh Jennings didn’t notice the noise or let it affect their game. “We won the right to fight again for Bronze”.
In the men’s tournament there will also be Brazilian representation in the final, the pairing of Alison and Bruno Schmidt overcoming Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands 21-17 21-23 16-14.
Walsh Jennings spent the day feeling devastated by her first her beach loss in four Olympics.
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She then causes mayhem with a serve. The win makes Walsh Jennings the oldest female Olympic medalist in the history of beach volleyball, giving her four Olympic medals and Ross (silver medalist in London) two. “They wear the skimpy clothes and the swimsuit.’ And it definitely does, I think, rub women the wrong way”, she said.
