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Still a year out, Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross are ready for Rio

Kerri Walsh Jennings is ready to win Olympic gold in 2016. More than a year out, she’s already talking about it as a done deal, confident that she and her partner will stand at the top of the podium in Brazil.

“When I started pre-season training this year, the hunger, it’s fully back,” Walsh Jennings told Yahoo Sports over lunch on Wednesday. “We want to be the best, without hesitation. We want everyone to know that we’re the best.”

It’s easy to understand such confidence from a woman who’s claimed the last three Olympic gold medals in women's beach volleyball, a sport that has only awarded five gold medals overall since being added in 1996. What’s strange is seeing her say it while sitting next to someone other than longtime partner Misty May-Treanor.

In 2016, for the first time, Walsh Jennings will pursue gold with a different partner, April Ross.

LONG BEACH, CA - JULY 27: Kerri Walsh Jennings of the United States (L) with April Ross on the podium after earning the Gold Medal during the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam on July 27, 2014 in Long Beach, California. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)
LONG BEACH, CA - JULY 27: Kerri Walsh Jennings of the United States (L) with April Ross on the podium after earning the Gold Medal during the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam on July 27, 2014 in Long Beach, California. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)

Ross is one of the women Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor defeated in the gold-medal match in London. She and former partner Jen Kessy had plenty of success of their own, yet Ross hardly has the name recognition of Walsh Jennings or May-Treanor among casual Olympics fans. Few female athletes do.

For fans who tune into beach volleyball only once every four years, seeing Ross alongside Walsh Jennings will be odd. Seeing them together now, though, it’s clear they’ve established a solid partnership in their two years together. They seamlessly finished each other’s sentences. They ordered  together and shared their plates. They seem like old friends, though they’re quick to admit they were no more than acquaintances before partnering up.

They started building this bond in early 2013, playing in two AVP Tour tournaments that season as Walsh Jennings returned to the sport after giving birth to her third child. (She had been newly pregnant during the London Olympics.) May-Treanor had retired, and Kessy was taking time off to start a family.

Within a year, they were already dominating the AVP Tour, completing the first undefeated season in tour history. They also won four FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour tournaments in 2014, more than any other team.

Winning the AVP’s Manhattan Beach Open earned the pair a plaque on the Manhattan Beach pier. “It was the first time I won it, the first time I got my name on the pier, in a lot of tries. So, I have to thank her for that,” Ross said, tilting her head in Walsh Jennings’ direction.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 28: Kerri Walsh (L) and April Ross of the United States in action during her match against Agatha Rippel and Barbara Seixas of Brazil at third place of the Brazil v USA Beach Volleyball International Challenge at Copacabana beach on February 28, 2015 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - FEBRUARY 28: Kerri Walsh (L) and April Ross of the United States in action during her match against Agatha Rippel and Barbara Seixas of Brazil at third place of the Brazil v USA Beach Volleyball International Challenge at Copacabana beach on February 28, 2015 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

She also had Walsh Jennings to thank for not winning plenty of other years. To now be half of American beach volleyball’s royal pair is a position Ross clearly takes seriously. Plenty of casual beach volleyball fans will wonder if Ross can match the standard May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings established in their decade-long dominance. Those fans need not worry.

“I work my butt off every day that I’m on the court,” said Ross. “I don’t know if I’m as intense as [Walsh Jennings], but I’m intense. Losing crushes me and I don’t want to experience that, ever.”

“When April is competing and I see her going through stuff in her head, it’s like looking in a mirror sometimes,” added Walsh Jennings. “I feel like the way that we approach our game or that we approach problems is similar.”

When the AVP Tour kicks off in New Orleans over Memorial Day Weekend, they’ll be focusing on the small things.

“It’s basically the fundamentals of the game that we need to figure out, as it relates to each other,” said Walsh Jennings. “We are still relatively new. We play against teams that have been together five, eight years. Experience is huge, there’s no substitute for that, so I think we just need to be able to be better at navigating the situations we’re in... and everyday we’re working on it.”

LONG BEACH, CA - JULY 27: Kerri Walsh Jennings of the United States sets the Mikasa to April Ross during the gold medal match during the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam on July 27, 2014 in Long Beach, California. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)
LONG BEACH, CA - JULY 27: Kerri Walsh Jennings of the United States sets the Mikasa to April Ross during the gold medal match during the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam on July 27, 2014 in Long Beach, California. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)

Ross is also working on setting and her jump serve, something she felt was missing from her game last year. They’re doing it all under the guidance of coach Marcio Sicoli, who had coached Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor since 2009.

“When he’s doing drills, there’s a certain rhythm to every single thing,” said Walsh Jennings. “And sometimes he’s setting us to be out of rhythm, and we have to find our rhythm within the chaos. It’s the most frustrating, humbling thing sometimes...”

“Frustrating sometimes, but awesome,” Ross finished.

As they kick off their second full season in about six weeks, they’ll be looking to master that rhythm. They say they hope fans can see how much fun they have on the court, that the more intense they look, the more they’re enjoying themselves. That’s part of competing, and winning, something they plan to do a lot of this year and next.

“I’ve never felt more like it’s in our hands,” Ross said.

As she finished, Walsh Jennings was grabbing Ross’ hand, sort of holding their hands up together with palms up and finger tips touching. “What are we doing?” Ross asked, laughing.

It was not as coordinated or smooth as Walsh Jennings had hoped, but it worked out. Clearly they’re still finding their way – but if history is any indication, they’ll work out the kinks long before they get to Rio.

“It’s all here,” Walsh Jennings said, looking at their hands. Then, to Ross, still laughing, “Just go with it.”

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Danielle Elliot is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact her at delliot@yahoo-inc.com or find her on Twitter and Facebook.