Kerri Walsh
Encyclopedia
Walsh-Jennings and teammate Misty May-Treanor
Misty May-Treanor
Misty Erie May-Treanor is an American professional volleyball player. She has won more tournaments than any other female player with 107 career wins....
were the gold medalists in beach volleyball at both the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics. They have been called "the greatest beach volleyball team of all time."
Early years
Kerri Lee Walsh was born in Santa Clara, CaliforniaSanta Clara, California
Santa Clara , founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city is the site of the eighth of 21 California missions, Mission Santa Clara de Asís, and was named after the mission. The Mission and Mission Gardens are located on the...
, and grew up in Saratoga, California
Saratoga, California
Saratoga is a city in Santa Clara County, California, USA. It is located on the west side of the Santa Clara Valley, directly west of San Jose, in the San Francisco Bay area. The population was 29,926 at the 2010 census....
.
School
In her earlier elementary and middle school life, she attended Baymonte Christian School in Scotts Valley, CaliforniaScotts Valley, California
Scotts Valley is a small city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, about thirty miles south of downtown San Jose and six miles north of Monterey Bay, in the upland slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 11,580...
. As a high school student, Walsh played indoor volleyball at Archbishop Mitty High School
Archbishop Mitty High School
Archbishop Mitty High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school located in San Jose, California, USA. The school is named for the late Archbishop John Joseph Mitty, the fourth Archbishop of San Francisco. It was the first diocesan Catholic high school in the Santa Clara Valley...
in San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
. She graduated in 1996.
In high school competition, she played against her current partner, Misty May-Treanor
Misty May-Treanor
Misty Erie May-Treanor is an American professional volleyball player. She has won more tournaments than any other female player with 107 career wins....
.
College
Walsh continued on to Stanford UniversityStanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, where she won national titles in 1996 and 1997 and was a four-year first-team All-American, Final Four MVP in 1996 and co-National Player of the Year in 1999. She graduated from Stanford in 2000 with a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in American Studies
American studies
American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of the United States. It traditionally incorporates the study of history, literature, and critical theory, but also includes fields as diverse as law, art, the media, film, religious studies, urban...
.
Played against her teammate (Misty May) in college.
Professional career
Kerri Walsh-Jennings plays professional beach volleyball on the U.S. AVP TourAssociation of Volleyball Professionals
The Association of Volleyball Professionals, or AVP, is a beach volleyball tour which takes place throughout the United States. The summer tour starts in April and continues almost every weekend until the end of October....
and internationally on the FIVB World Tour
Swatch FIVB World Tour
The Swatch FIVB Beach Volley World Tour is an intercontinental beach volleyball tour....
.
On July 23, 2006, Walsh-Jennings topped $1 million in career earnings.
Walsh-Jennings won her second gold medal at the summer games in Beijing after having rotator cuff surgery the preceding fall. She discovered kinesiology tape
Elastic therapeutic tape
Elastic therapeutic tape is a cotton strip with an acrylic adhesive that is used for treating athletic injuries and a variety of physical disorders. It was invented by Dr...
as a way to relieve the pain and support her shoulder without limiting her range of motion.
Sydney 2000
Walsh played in the 2000 Summer Olympics2000 Summer Olympics
The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
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 Olympics2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...
, Walsh and Misty May-Treanor
Misty May-Treanor
Misty Erie May-Treanor is an American professional volleyball player. She has won more tournaments than any other female player with 107 career wins....
won the gold medal in women's beach volleyball without losing a single game.
Beijing 2008
On August 21, Walsh-Jennings and May-Treanor repeated as Olympic gold medalists, defeating the first-seeded Chinese team in the final match. Although, May-Treanor and Walsh deserved to be the #1 seeded team, the home rule put them in the #2 spot with China as the #1. May-Treanor and Walsh did not lose a single set in either of the past two Olympics. Their final match extended their unbeaten streak to 108 matches. They are the only beach volleyball team to successfully defend their Olympic title.London 2012
In April 2011, Walsh announced that she will again be partnering up with May-Treanor at hopes of qualifying for the 2012 Olympics.TV, film and radio appearances
Walsh-Jennings has appeared in several television commercials, and has been a guest on a number of popular talk shows as a result. In February 2006, Walsh-Jennings had a guest-starring role in an episode of CSI: MiamiCSI: Miami
CSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....
along with several other AVP Volleyball players.
Walsh-Jennings hosts a weekly, one-hour radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio is a satellite radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Radio.Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 streams of music and 65 streams of...
'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
Extreme Dodgeball
Extreme Dodgeball is an American Sports Entertainment television show that debuted on Game Show Network in 2004. It has also been shown in the UK on Challenge.-Standard rules:...
. She was a member of the Detroit Spoilers, who lost all ten games they played.
Kerri Walsh-Jennings also appeared along side her volleyball partner Misty May-Treanor on the show Shaq Vs. in August 2009.
Other ventures
Walsh currently endorses the therapeutic athletic tape KT Tape (Kinesiology Therapeutic Tape).Personal life
Walsh is married to fellow pro-beach volleyball player Casey JenningsCasey Jennings
Casey Thomas Jennings is an American beach volleyball player. He teams up with Kevin Wong and has teamed up with Brad Keenan or Matt Fuerbringer during most of his career.-Personal life:...
. Together, they have two sons, Joseph Michael (Born May 22, 2009) and Sundance Thomas (Born May 19th, 2010).
She is close friends with Misty May-Treanor and Jake and Adria Elliot.
Awards and honors
- 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)
- 2004 and 2006 — Sportswoman of the Year Award (with Misty May-Treanor)
External links
- Official website of Kerri Walsh
- Kerri Walsh on TIMETimeTime is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
's 100 Olympic Athletes To Watch.