Kerri Walsh Jennings
| Kerri Walsh Jennings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Walsh in 2007 |
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| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Full name | Kerri Lee Walsh Jennings | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | Six Feet of Sunshine | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality |  United States |
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| Born | August 15, 1978 Santa Clara, California |
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| Height | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Beach volleyball information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Previous teammates | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Honours
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Kerri Lee Walsh Jennings (born August 15, 1978) is an American professional beach volleyball player.
Walsh Jennings and teammate Misty May-Treanor were the gold medalists in beach volleyball at the 2004, 2008, and 2012 Summer Olympics. They have been called "the greatest beach volleyball team of all time."[1][2]
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Early years [edit]
Kerri Lee Walsh was born in Santa Clara, California, the daughter of Margery Lee (née Formico) and Timothy Joseph Walsh. Her ancestry includes Italian (from a great-grandfather),[3] Austrian, Irish, Canadian, and Scottish.[4] She grew up in Saratoga, California.[5]
School [edit]
In her earlier elementary and middle school life, she attended Baymonte Christian School in Scotts Valley, California. As a high school student, Walsh played indoor volleyball at Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, California. She graduated in 1996. There, she led her team to three state championships in indoor volleyball from 1993 to 1995. She also led her team to one state championship in basketball in 1995. In 1996, she was named by G (ESPNHS) as their first girl's national volleyball player of the year.
In high school competition, she played against her current partner, Misty May-Treanor.[6]
College [edit]
Walsh continued on to Stanford University, where she won national titles in 1996 and 1997 and was a four-year first-team All-American,[7] Final Four MVP in 1996[8] and co-National Player of the Year in 1999.[9] She graduated from Stanford in 2000 with a B.A. in American studies.[10] She played against her teammate (Misty May) in college.
Professional career [edit]
Kerri Walsh Jennings plays professional beach volleyball on the U.S. AVP Tour and internationally on the FIVB World Tour.
On July 23, 2006, Walsh Jennings topped $1 million in career earnings.[11]
Olympics [edit]
Sydney 2000 [edit]
Walsh played in the 2000 Summer Olympics on the U.S. women's indoor team, earning a fourth-place finish. She missed several of her first games due to a false positive on a drug test, which indicated a suspicious epitestosterone to testosterone ratio. After being retested, Walsh was cleared of any wrongdoing and allowed to continue playing.[12]
Athens 2004 [edit]
At the 2004 Summer Olympics, Walsh and Misty May-Treanor won the gold medal in women's beach volleyball without losing a single set.
Beijing 2008 [edit]
On August 21, 2008 Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor repeated as Olympic gold medalists, defeating the first-seeded Chinese team in the final match (they would have been first-seeded, but home rule put them in the #2 spot with China as the #1). May-Treanor and Walsh did not lose a set in either of the past two Olympics. Their final match extended their unbeaten streak to 108 matches.
London 2012 [edit]
Walsh and May-Treanor competed together for the last time in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. After first and second round wins, they continued their Olympic win streak of 32 consecutive sets without a loss until losing the first set of three to Austria in a preliminary round before ultimately winning the match, 17–21; 21–8; 15–10.[13] They went on to defeat fellow Americans Jen Kessy and April Ross, 21–16, 21–16 on August 8, 2012 to win the gold medal once again.
TV, film and radio appearances [edit]
In February 2006, Walsh Jennings had a guest-starring role in an episode of CSI: Miami along with several other AVP Volleyball players.[14]
Walsh Jennings hosts a weekly, one-hour radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio's Faction 28 station. It airs every Sunday morning at 9 AM Eastern time.
Kerri Walsh Jennings appeared in the Game Show Network television show Extreme Dodgeball. She was a member of the Detroit Spoilers, who lost all ten games they played.
Kerri Walsh Jennings also appeared alongside her volleyball partner Misty May-Treanor on the show Shaq Vs. in August 2009.
Other ventures [edit]
Walsh currently endorses the therapeutic athletic tape KT Tape (Kinesiology Therapeutic Tape).[citation needed]
Training [edit]
In addition to her training on the sand split between Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles, California, Walsh has been training in the gym at O.C. Fast-Twitch since 2002 with trainer Tommy Knox.
Personal life [edit]
Walsh is married to fellow pro beach-volleyball player Casey Jennings. Together, they have two sons and a daughter, Joseph Michael (Born May 22, 2009), Sundance Thomas (Born May 19, 2010) and Scout Margery (Born April 6, 2013). On September 24, 2012, the couple announced on the Today Show that they are expecting their third child, a girl, in April 2013. Walsh was five weeks pregnant during the 2012 London Summer Olympics.[15] Doctors have confirmed that Jennings did not put herself or the fetus in danger when she was competing at the Olympics.[16]
Awards and honors [edit]
- AVP Best Offensive Player 2003
- AVP Crocs Cup Champion 2006 (Misty May-Treanor), 2007 (Misty May-Treanor), 2008 (Misty May-Treanor)
- AVP Most Valuable Player 2003, 2004
- AVP Team of the Year 2003 (Misty May-Treanor), 2004 (Misty May-Treanor), 2005 (Misty May-Treanor), 2006 (Misty May-Treanor), 2007 (Misty May-Treanor), 2008 (Misty May-Treanor)
- AVP Best Defensive Player (Blocker) 2008
- FIVB Best Blocker 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
- FIVB Best Hitter 2005, 2006, 2007
- FIVB Best Offensive Player 2007
- FIVB Most Outstanding 2007
- FIVB Sportsperson 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
- FIVB Tour Champion 2002 (Misty May-Treanor)[17]
- 2004 and 2006 — Sportswoman of the Year Award (with Misty May-Treanor)[18]
References [edit]
- ^ Ackerman, Jon. "Best of 2000s: Team of the Decade – Misty May/Kerri Walsh". Universal Sports. Retrieved 12 September 2010.
- ^ "Meet Team USA: Women's Beach Volleyball". Harpo Productions, Inc. Retrieved 12 September 2010.
- ^ "Che Palle! - Part 2". Chepalle.gazzetta.it. Retrieved 2012-08-09.
- ^ "kerri walsh". Freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Retrieved 2012-08-09.
- ^ "Athletes: Kerri Walsh.". USA Volleyball. Retrieved 2008-08-13.
- ^ "Top U.S. athletes to watch at Beijing Gamesjhdaug". ESPN. August 6, 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-13.
- ^ "Walsh and Tom earn First Team AVCA All-America honors". Stanford.com. December 15, 1999.
- ^ "Top seeded Stanford beats Hawaii". Stanford.com. December 21, 1996.
- ^ "Kerri Walsh named National co-Player of the Year". Stanford.com. December 17, 1999.
- ^ "Ask the experts". QC Volleyball.
- ^ "Volleyball enriches a few as popularity spikes". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. July 9, 2006. p. B2.
- ^ Eule, Brian (July/August 2004). "On to Athens". STANFORD Magazing.
- ^ Associated Press (July 13, 2012). "London 2012: Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor at the last minute changed events to speeding walking. Not favored to win, surprising the two tied for gold.". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 20, 2012.
- ^ IMDB Filmography
- ^ "Beach volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings: I was pregnant at the Olympics". Today.com. 24 September 2012. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
- ^ "Volleyballer Kerri Walsh Jennings pregnant at Olympics". USA Today. 24 September 2012. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
- ^ Walsh – Profile, Beach Volleyball Database
- ^ "Sportswoman of the Year Award". Women's Sports Foundation. Retrieved 2009-08-03.
External links [edit]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kerri Walsh |
- Golden Girl goes for three-peat in London
- Official website of Kerri Walsh
- O.C. Fast-Twitch Hall of Fame Kerri Walsh
- USOC profile
- Kerri Walsh on TIME's 100 Olympic Athletes To Watch.
- "Walsh's Sirius radio show". FACTION. Archived from the original on 2008-01-08.
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- 1978 births
- American beach volleyball players
- Beach volleyball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics
- Beach volleyball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics
- Beach volleyball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics
- Olympic beach volleyball players of the United States
- Volleyball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics
- People from Santa Clara, California
- Sportspeople from San Jose, California
- Living people
- Stanford Cardinal women's volleyball players
- Olympic gold medalists for the United States
- Women's volleyball players
- Olympic medalists in volleyball
- American sportswomen
- American people of Italian descent
- Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics
