Kerri Walsh lost her very first match of beach volleyball in the 2016 Rio Olympics to Brazil, playing with fellow American player April Ross against A. Bednarczuk and B. Seixas. It was a terrible straight set loss following her three gold medals in prior Olympics, with scores of 22-20 and 21-18. Following the loss, Kerri immediately blamed herself for the first loss she has ever made in the Olympic games. She found herself aced more frequently than she first anticipated.

According to USAToday, she seemed to be quite hard on herself according to her comments: “You’ve got to pass the ball to win matches,” Walsh said. “I don’t even know how many aces they got - four per game, maybe, on me? That’s unacceptable and inexcusable. I’ve been served aggressively this whole tournament, when people serve at me, and so has April (Ross). We’ve handled it in every other situation so it is very disappointing and heartbreaking to not do that tonight.”Others were, to be frank, quite amazed that they beat Kerri Walsh for the first time in her Olympic career. As stated on ESPN, opposing player A. Bednarczuk sounded quite surprised following her match. When she was asked what it was like to finally beat Walsh, she responded: “It’s crazy! I don’t even realize what it means yet. After we finish the Olympic games, we’ll think about this because now we have to think about the next game.” The player was quite right to be amazed, as up to that point, Walsh has the best record of any beach volleyball player in history. Outside of the Olympics, Walsh has also become one of the top players on the AVP and FIVB tours, winning dozens of times.

However, despite reeling from her loss, she still managed to win the bronze medal, slightly redeeming her. Playing with Ross against two other Brazilian players Larissa and Talita, she won the medal the day after her loss. Finally feeling happy once more, she stated that she would cherish the bronze medal more than the gold. Although she has already lost the chance for the gold medal and is now reconsidering joining the 2020 Olympics, being unsure if she would possibly do as well as she used to, her reputation still remains strong with the bronze medal she won.

<Heejae Park OCSA 9th Grade>