| Kerri Walsh-Jennings | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Kerri Walsh in 2007 |
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| Full name | Kerri Lee Walsh-Jennings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | Six Feet of Sunshine | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | August 15, 1978 Santa Clara, CA, USA |
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| Hometown | Santa Clara, CA, USA | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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 both the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics. They have been called "the greatest beach volleyball team of all time."[1][2]
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Kerri Lee Walsh was born in Santa Clara, California, and grew up in Saratoga, California.[3]
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.
In high school competition, she played against her current partner, Misty May-Treanor.[4]
Walsh continued on to Stanford University, where she won national titles in 1996 and 1997 and was a four-year first-team All-American,[5] Final Four MVP in 1996[6] and co-National Player of the Year in 1999.[7] She graduated from Stanford in 2000 with a B.A. in American Studies.[8] Played against her teammate (Misty May) in college.
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.[9]
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 as a way to relieve the pain and support her shoulder without limiting her range of motion.[10]
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.[11]
At the 2004 Summer Olympics, Walsh and Misty May-Treanor won the gold medal in women's beach volleyball without losing a single game.
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.
In April 2011, Walsh announced that she will again be partnering up with May-Treanor at hopes of qualifying for the 2012 Olympics. However, their dominance in the international circuit has waned in recent years and are ranked 3rd.
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: Miami along with several other AVP Volleyball players.[12]
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 along side her volleyball partner Misty May-Treanor on the show Shaq Vs. in August 2009.
Walsh currently endorses the therapeutic athletic tape KT Tape (Kinesiology Therapeutic Tape).
Walsh is married to fellow pro-beach volleyball player Casey Jennings. 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.
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