Walsh Jennings and Ross rallied back to tie the score at 8-8.
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That explains something about what beach volleyball has meant to the Rio Olympics: part athletics showcase, part party and entirely a place to celebrate a highlight of the Games for Rio.
Walsh Jennings and Ross entered the Olympics as the No. 3 seed and rolled into the semifinals, losing one set in their first five victories. “This is a highlight of my athletic career, without a doubt”. After both teams traded point after point, the set was finally decided on a serve down the middle which Walsh Jennings and Ross both thought would sail out of bounds. But the three-time champion delivered a pair of blocks for the final two points to clinch the bronze.
Wrapping themselves in an American flag, the partners gave each other another long embrace.
If it was any consolation, Walsh Jennings can say her streak ended in one of the most attractive spots on earth. “It didn’t make me upset”. Ross was the hand-picked partner chosen to replace Misty May Treanor, the woman who had won those three gold medals with Walsh.
“It still hasn’t sunk in what we’ve done, beating a player who has never lost at the Olympics”, said Bednarczuk, who won the world championships past year with Seixas. “If you ask everybody, everybody will say ‘Kerri'”. 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.
It’s day 12 of the Rio Olympic Games and there are 16 gold medals up for grabs in nine different sports. The gold-medal match is scheduled for Wednesday night.
Kerri Walsh Jennings got her birthday wish – the marquee semifinal showdown everyone has been waiting for. It got worse as the night went on.
Inside Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic Stadium, Elaine Thompson is hoping to be the first Jamaican to add a 200-meter title to her 100-meter crown before you know who … “It was because I wasn’t passing the ball”, she said. “He hit the heart”.
Kerri also referred to her performance as rocky and said that the Brazilians should have targeted her because she wasn’t playing well, according to USA Today.
A loud and largely pro-Brazilian crowd packed the stands for the midnight match, in a showdown that everyone in the beach volleyball world had been waiting for.
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From the opening match, when the raucous Brazilian crowd turned on the American team, chanting “ZIKA!” at them, it seemed like there could be no other outcome than a match under the lights at Copacabana Beach, the reigning world champs and the defending gold medalist, head-to-head for it all.
