Beach volleyball legend puts retirement talk on ice

Rio de Janeiro : 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.

The 38-year-old won three consecutive Olympic titles with the now retired Misty May-Treanor before suffering a shock loss in the Rio semi-finals with new partner April Ross.

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.

"I've no idea, I don't know. But I'm very happy tonight," she said, when asked whether fans would see her at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

"You're going to see me with my kids very soon."

Walsh Jennings added that she was so stunned by Wednesday's defeat that she barely slept, before finally snapping out of it and being able to focus on the play-off.

"Devastated pretty much captures how I felt last night. We came here to be at our best and I was so sub-par," she said.

"I talked to myself all night long, I didn't sleep and at some point I said, 'You have to stop feeling sorry for yourself. You have no one else to blame. This is an honour to have one more day to fight for what you want'."

The Americans had to scrap to rescue a match which was slipping away from them until they rallied with a determined fightback in the second set.

Walsh Jennings came out fired up as she belted a series of spikes, but errors crept in as the Brazilians put the Americans under pressure with their greater variety.

Rocha scored point after point with her soft shots at the net and she clinched the first set 21-17 with a trademark touch into space near the right boundary line.

Walsh Jennings and Ross collided and both hit the deck as they slipped 8-11 behind in the second set, before they roared back to take it 21-17 and force the decider.

And after a tight start, they took control of the final set and clinched it 15-9 when Walsh Jennings blocked Rocha's spike.