Kerri Walsh Jennings biography
Kerri Walsh Jennings, in full Kerri Lee Walsh Jennings, née Kerri Lee Walsh, (born August 15, 1978, Santa Clara, California, U.S.), American seashore volleyball participant who, together with her accomplice, Misty May-Treanor, gained Olympic gold medals within the occasion in 2004, 2008, and 2012.
Walsh grew up in an athletic household; her father performed minor league baseball, and her mom had been a star volleyball participant at Santa Clara University. Walsh attended Stanford University, the place she performed indoor volleyball and helped her group win consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) titles in 1996 and 1997; she was named nationwide coplayer of the yr in 1999. She graduated with a bachelor’s diploma in American research after which moved on to play for the U.S. indoor volleyball group on the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, which completed fourth total.
Walsh teamed up on the sand in 2001 with May, who had competed in seashore volleyball on the Sydney Games. Walsh and May completed with the quantity 5 rating on this planet earlier than reaching primary in 2002. They received even higher in 2003, successful a then-record 90 straight matches and all eight tournaments through which they performed, together with the world championships, the place they upset the defending Brazilian champions within the ultimate. That success carried over to the 2004 Athens Olympics, through which they turned the primary American feminine tandem to win gold medals in seashore volleyball. Following the Athens Games, they captured two extra world titles, in 2005 and 2007. Meanwhile, Walsh married volleyball participant Casey Jennings in December 2005.
In 2008 Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor (Misty May had married skilled baseball participant Matt Treanor in 2004) competed within the Beijing Olympics. In the ultimate match on August 21, Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor ignored a gentle downpour and drenched bathing fits to beat Wang Jie and Tian Jia of China 21–18, 21–18 to proceed their four-year reign over girls’s seashore volleyball. The match was the pair’s 108th consecutive victory and their 14th straight Olympics win (they didn't lose a set both in Beijing or in Athens on the 2004 Olympics). In their first post-Olympic match, Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor prolonged their successful streak to 112 matches, but it surely got here to an finish on August 31 with a 21–19, 10–21, 25–23 loss to Olympic teammates Elaine Youngs and Nicole Branagh within the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) Crocs Cup Shootout in Mason, Ohio. The defeat additionally ended the pair’s streak of 19 straight titles—fairly an accomplishment for a group that had began enjoying collectively solely in 2001. At the 2012 London Olympics, Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor gained a 3rd consecutive gold medal.
May-Treanor retired after the 2012 Olympics, and Walsh Jennings then teamed with April Ross. At the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games, Walsh Jennings and Ross misplaced within the seashore volleyball semifinals (which was the primary match that Walsh Jennings had ever misplaced within the Olympics) and completed with a bronze medal.