Three-time beach volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings failed to qualify for her sixth Olympics on Wednesday.
Walsh Jennings and her partner Brooke Sweat lost in a qualifying match in Ostrava, Czech Republic to the Netherlands, meaning that the pair could not overtake fellow Americans Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil on the international tour point list.
Walsh Jennings and Sweat would have needed to at least get to the bronze medal match and hope that Claes and Sponcil didn’t reach the semifinals in order to overtake the two.
Two-time Olympic medalist April Ross and partner Alix Klineman have already clinched a spot in Tokyo. With a maximum two team limit for each country, Walsh Jennings and Sweat’s loss means they just missed out on the second spot.
“It’s a terrible, terrible feeling,” Walsh Jennings said after the match. “It’s been a really rough year, and to lose in a qualifier, it feels really hard right now.”