BEACH VOLLEYBALL
LONDON OLYMPICS
Medal talk with... Jen Kessy
Our fi rst phone call to Jen Kessy went straight to voicemail, and when she called back an hour later, she opened the conversa- tion with: “Sorry, I was washing my dog.” Back to the real world. From the grand- ness of the silver-medal podium in London to attending to the hygiene of her 10-year-old English bulldog, Durham, who hadn’t had a bath in quite some time. “He was disgusting,” she said. Understandable. For the fi rst half of this year, the 35-year-old Southern California native has dedicated nearly every waking moment to reaching the medal stand at the Olympics with beach partner April Ross. Mission accomplished. Team Kessy-Ross, which was formed in 2007 and has produced 22 tournament titles and (including a FIVB Beach Volleyball World Champi- onship), played its best volleyball of the season in London. The highlight was a dramatic 15-21, 21-19, 15- 12 comeback win in the semifi nals over top-seeded Larissa Franca and Juliana Felisberta of Brazil. Kessy and Ross were beaten 21-16, 21-16 by Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor in the gold-medal match, and Kessy says that loss hurt more than she anticipated but added that she knows she’ll look back on the London Games with great pride and excitement.
VolleyballUSA: Congratulations.
You’re probably getting recognized more than you used to, right?
J.K.: I think so. When we were fl ying back,
there were some kids on the plane – they were like 10, 8 and 7 – and they said, ‘We watched every game,’ and I let them hold the medal, and they said, ‘Oh my God, I never thought I would hold an Olympic medal.’ And then I went into hot yoga the other day, and I’d never seen the instructor, but she said, ‘Oh my God, I totally watched you on TV.’ And then I proceeded to almost die in her class. It’s not always good to be recognized because then they’re expecting something great from you. (Laughs)
You guys have a good history of being at your best when your best is needed. What’s the key to rising to the occasion?
We’re not experts, but it kind of looks like we are. We always had those goals in mind. We had our white board out from the beginning of last year with the number of matches until that fi nal (Olympic) match. We did a countdown – every single practice we knew how many days were left. And we would write ‘gold medal’ on our volleyballs. We were always thinking about the ultimate goal. And that’s all mental stuff. But then you have the physical aspect of it, and we knew
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Seeing ‘gold medal’ written on the volleyballs gave you extra push?
When it’s a long practice, and it’s cold and
you’re getting cranky, you look down at that ball and it says, ‘gold medal,’ and you think, ‘This is why I’m out here.’ Little things like that help you get through.
It would have been hard for even your faithful fans to believe that you’d beat the Brazilians after losing to them nine times in a row. And then you were down a set – and down by four points in the second set. At that point, it didn’t look good.
I said that to April when I called a time out at 8-6. I said, ‘This is not looking good.’
So how did you stay the course? Well, in the fi rst set, Larissa served two net-tape aces in a row. And you look at those points and think, there’s nothing we could have done. They went from being up 12-11 to 14-11. After we lost the fi rst game, we said, ‘We didn’t lose by much, don’t worry about it; it’s going to come back our way.’ And I kept saying, ‘Believe, believe, believe.’ We stayed positive, and we kept saying, ‘Keep siding out, something’s going to happen.’ And things did happen. April started to get
we had to peak at the Olympics, so we made sure that we were lifting all the way through the (tournaments before the Games), and we weren’t taking time off. We were pushing our bodies until two weeks before. And the week before we really tapered, and our bodies felt the best they had felt. And then we were at the Olympics in the best shape we could be in, and we felt good. We actually felt we could jump, even though it was really deep sand.
By Don Patterson
her serve back, and I started blocking. We put pressure on them, and they didn’t answer back. If you look at Italy against Kerri and Misty, they were crying in their (time-out box) because they were losing. You’re never going to catch me and April crying because we’re losing. There’s always a chance you can come back. Always. So our belief is to stay positive.
That’s a contrast to Larissa, who’s always critical of Juliana.
You have to wonder, ‘What if Laris- sa was actually nice to Juliana? What if she was actually positive? How unbelievable could they be?’ Larissa looks at Juliana and says, ‘You need to set me better.’ You’re never going to convince me that being negative and being mean to your partner is the right way to play.
You said you were surprised by how disappointed you felt in not getting the gold.
Before the match, I realized I was going to get a gold or a silver, and I started to believe, ‘This is going to happen for us. We are going to be the gold medalists.’ And then when we weren’t, it hurt. I never in my whole life expected to be that disap- pointed with a silver medal. It sounds ridiculous because there would be a million people who would trade places. But it’s just that feeling of opening yourself for the possibility and then being hurt by it. It’s like dating. After winning that match the night before, I thought, ‘Holy Moly, we’re going to be on the medal stand no matter what.’ And I thought, ‘I’m going to enjoy every second of this.’ And when we lost, that was not the way I felt.
It sounds as if you’re not planning to play another four years and try for a spot at the Rio Olympics.
Never say never, but if you asked me if I’m going to do it again with the same exact qualifi cation process and the same amount of travel, I would say no. I don’t want to do that. I want to be home. My boyfriend is moving from France. I want to start a life with him and be around my family and all my friends. I miss having a normal life.
You were quoted during the Olympics as saying, ‘Don’t just call us that other American team.’
One of the fi rst questions I got after the
semifi nals was, ‘How does it feel to win being the other American team?’ And I go, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ Anybody who watched that semifi nal is never going to call us the other American team again. They’re going to say, “Jen and April.”
PHOTO: ANDREW WEBER / US PRESSWIRE
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