Kerri Lee Walsh Jennings (born August 15, 1978) is an American professional beach volleyball player, three-time Olympic gold medalist, and a one-time Olympic bronze medalist. She is the beach volleyball career leader in both career victories and career wins as of 2016, with 133 victories and $2,542,635 in winnings.
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."
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Early years
Walsh was born in Santa Clara, California, the daughter of Margery Lee (née Formico) and Timothy Joseph Walsh. Walsh grew up in Scotts Valley, 6 miles north of Santa Cruz. She attended grade school there until the end of her middle school years. Before beginning high school her family moved to San Jose in the Silicon Valley. Walsh attended Archbishop Mitty High School, competing on the volleyball and basketball teams. She led her school's teams to three state championships in volleyball, in 1993, 1994 and 1995. She also led her school's basketball team to a state championship in 1995. She was named Gatorade National High School Volleyball Player of the Year in 1996, the first time the award was given. Walsh was also the #1 volleyball athlete recruit in the nation her senior year (1995.) While in high school she competed against her future beach doubles partner, Misty May-Treanor.
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College
Walsh attended Stanford University on a volleyball scholarship. While there she was selected as a first-team All-American four years in a row, becoming only the second player in the history of collegiate volleyball to be chosen first team all four years of their collegiate careers. While at Stanford her school's volleyball team won over 90% of its matches, posting a 122-11 overall record. The Cardinal won four Pac-10 titles and three times reached the NCAA Final Four, winning the title in 1996 and 1997, and falling to Penn State in the championship game in her senior year in 1999. She was selected as the MVP of the Final Four in 1996, and was co-National Player of the Year in 1999. She was also the first player in PAC-10 history to record over 1,500 kills (1,553), 1,200 digs (1,285) and 500 blocks (502). Walsh is considered to be one of the best all-around players in collegiate volleyball history. She graduated from Stanford in 2001 with a B.A. in American studies.
Professional career
Walsh-Jennings plays professional beach volleyball on the U.S. AVP Tour and internationally on the FIVB World Tour. For most of her career she played with partner Misty May-Treanor, forming the most successful beach pairings in AVP history. May and Walsh formed a partnership on the beach circuit in 2001, finishing the season with the number five ranking in the world. In 2002 the team reached the number one ranking. They continued their dominance in 2003, winning all eight tournaments they entered and a then-record 90 straight matches, including the world championships where they upset defending world champions Brazil in the final.
In 2008 May-Treanor and Walsh extended a winning streak to 112 matches before losing to Olympic teammates Elaine Youngs and Nicole Branagh in the AVP Crocs Cup Shootout in Ohio. To that point the pair had won 19 straight titles.
Following the retirement of partner Misty May-Treanor in 2012, Walsh teamed with April Ross. She went on to break the career record for most wins by a female professional volleyball player when she won the FIVB Grand Slam in Xiamen, China. The win gave Walsh the 113th title of her career, breaking the old mark set by May-Treanor. Walsh and Ross won 21-14, 17-21, 15-12 over the Brazilian pair of Taiana Lima and Talita Da Rocha Antunes. It was the Americans' third title in five events since joining forces.
World tour 2016
She played, with partner April Ross, at the Long Beach, California Grand Slam, which is part of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. The pair won all 3 matches against, Carol/Ana Patrícia Brazil (21 - 17, 21 - 19), Humana-Paredes/Pischke Canada (21 - 16, 21 - 17), Maria Antonelli/Lili Brazil (21 - 19, 18 - 21, 15 - 13).
In semi final action (Aug 27, 2016) Walsh Jennings and Ross played against Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude of Germany and won in straight sets (21 - 17, 21 - 16).
Gold Medal goes to April/Walsh in straight sets (21-16, 21-16), Silver goes to Spain's Liliana Fernández Steiner and Elsa Baquerizo McMillan.
Competing at the World Tour Finals in Toronto, playing in Pool A they are in 1st with a 2-0 and advance to quarter finals.
2017
In 2017, Walsh-Jennings announced she was not signing a new contract with AVP because of disagreements with the organization. Ross re-signed with the AVP. She and Walsh-Jennings ended their partnership. Walsh-Jennings then reteamed with Nicole Branagh, with whom she briefly competed during May-Treanor's 2010 break from beach volleyball.
Olympic appearances
Sydney 2000
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.
Athens 2004
At the 2004 Summer Olympics, Walsh and Misty May-Treanor won the gold medal in women's beach volleyball without losing a single set in all seven olympic matches.
Beijing 2008
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
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. 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, making her one of the few athletes who have won three consecutive Olympic gold medals in any events.
Rio de Janeiro 2016
Walsh-Jennings and her partner, April Ross fell to Brazil's pair of Agatha and Barbara, ranked 2nd, in straight sets of (22-20), (21-18) in the Semi Final Match in Rio 2016 Summer Olympics. Before the match, Walsh had lost a total of 2 sets the past 4 Olympics and had never lost a match. She now has lost a total of 4 sets and a match after the surprising loss. They won the bronze medal match, defeating the number one ranked Brazil team Larissa França/Talita Antunes. This is Walsh-Jennings' fourth Olympic medal, making her the most decorated beach volleyball player - male or female - in Olympic history.
Media appearances
In February 2006, Walsh Jennings had a guest-starring role in an episode of CSI: Miami along with several other AVP Volleyball players.
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.
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.
Walsh Jennings also appeared alongside her volleyball partner Misty May-Treanor on the show Shaq Vs. in August 2009.
She also posed nude, both before and after giving birth, for the 2013 ESPN The Magazine "Body Issue".
Walsh appeared in the twelfth season of Hell's Kitchen where she gave the team challenge winner a private volleyball lesson.
In 2015, Walsh Jennings and her husband appeared on Celebrity Wife Swap. She swapped places with Tami Roman from the television show Basketball Wives.
Personal life
Walsh was married in 2005, to fellow American 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). Walsh was five weeks pregnant during the 2012 London Summer Olympics.
Walsh trained on the sand split between Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles, California, and from 2002 did additional training in the gym at O.C. Fast-Twitch with trainer Tommy Knox.
Awards and honors
- AVP Best Offensive Player (2): 2003, 2014
- AVP Crocs Cup Champion (3): 2006, 2007, 2008 (all with Misty May-Treanor)
- AVP Most Valuable Player (2): 2003, 2004
- AVP Team of the Year (8): 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 (with Misty May-Treanor), 2014, 2016 (with April Ross)
- AVP Best Defensive Player (Blocker) (1): 2008
- FIVB Best Blocker (7): 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2014
- FIVB Best Hitter (5): 2005, 2006, 2007, 2012, 2016
- FIVB Best Offensive Player (2): 2007, 2014
- FIVB Most Outstanding (4): 2007, 2012, 2013, 2014
- FIVB Sportsperson (5): 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2012
- FIVB Tour Champion (1): 2002 (with Misty May-Treanor)
- Sportswoman of the Year Award (2): 2004 and 2006 (with Misty May-Treanor)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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