That came at the end of pool play.
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Walsh Jennings said they would be proud to stand on the podium, and their focus now was to recover from the emotional loss with less than 21 hours before the third-place match against Larissa and Talita, a pair of three-time Olympians.
It was a mixed bag for the US Tuesday at the Olympics in Rio. Though, Kerri now has three gold medals from her time at the Athens, Beijing and London games to keep her company. In addition to being the best at what she does, Walsh Jennings also loves to use Instagram. 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.
Walsh Jennings and her partner, April Ross, were defeated by Brazil’s own top-ranked team of Agatha and Barbara, who follow in their nation’s athletic tradition of using only their first names. If it didn’t before, the whole country knows both of their names now.
The streak is over for Kerry Walsh-Jennings. It was no consolation.
“It’s a awful feeling”, she said, taking the blame for the loss by saying her failure to pass effectively put her partner in a bind. After a serve into the net and another unforced error, Brazil jumped up by two points and did not look back.
“It’s a huge deal”, said Ross, who won the silver medal in London.
Serves were a problem. “If you see weakness, you go after it”. Agatha and Barbara entered at the No. 2. Walsh Jennings and Ross could never seem to get into a return rhythm all night.
The most thrilling point of the match came at 13-12 Brazil, when both teams traded diving shot after diving shot, eventually ending in a Brazil victor down the middle.
A largely Brazilian crowd ate it all up.
For all of the troubles during the first week and a half of the Summer Olympics, the stadium-shaking potential of the enterprise pounded through the beach volleyball venue on the Copacabana shore in the early hours of Wednesday. “You have to pass the ball to win matches, and I don’t know how many aces per game they got on me and that’s just unacceptable and inexcusable”. Ross and Walsh Jennings had won the previous two matches and led 3-1 heading into the Rio semi-final. The U.S. men’s basketball team cheered them on, and serenaded her with Happy Birthday after the match. Asked whether she can make it to those Games and try again for her fourth gold, she replied, “I know I can”.
“I am so proud of my people, the Brazilian people”, Talita said.
“Since the start of these Games we’ve been able to grow in each match, improving our concentration, our accuracy, and I think that made the difference”. I certainly did not and there is no excuse for it. But I am super-motivated.
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Walsh Jennings is 38 and will be 42 by the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
