Kerri Walsh

About Kerri Walsh

Kerri Lee Walsh (born August 15, 1978) is an American beach volleyball player. Walsh was born in California to Tim and Margie Walsh and grew up in Saratoga, California. As a high school student, she played on the varsity team at Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose. Walsh continued on to Stanford University, where she won national titles in 1996 and 1997 and was a four-year first-team All-American, Freshman of the Year and Final Four MVP in 1996 and co-National Player of the Year in 1999. She graduated from Stanford in 1999 with a degree in American Studies. She has played both indoor and beach volleyball. On July 23, 2006 Walsh topped $1 million in career earnings with a win (with her partner Misty May) at AVP McDonald's Chicago Open presented by Nautica.

In the 2000 Summer Olympics, she played indoor volleyball, where the United States team finished in fourth place. A half-hour before her first game, she was barred from playing because of a suspicious drug test result. But she was able to take the court a few games later after a retest. In the 2004 Summer Olympics, Walsh and Misty May won the gold medal for women's beach volleyball for the American team. Winning an unprecedented ninety-one matches and 16 tournaments in a row, Walsh and May captured the gold without ever losing a game. Currently Walsh is ranked as the best female volleyball player in the world, and as of 2005 the Kerri Walsh-Misty May duo appear to be almost unstoppable on both the AVP and FIVB Beach Volleyball tours. Further into the future, she is likely to participate in the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a strong seed to win a second gold medal. As beach volleyball is a sport where athletes can perform effectively well into their 30's, such a prediction is within reason.

Beyond winning dozens of tournaments, Walsh is an extremely valuable marketing image for the sport. Her friendly and personable demeanor, great sportsmanship, and imposing presence on the court have done much to fuel the popularity of beach volleyball in the 2000s. She 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 had a guest starring role in an episode of CSI: Miami along with several other AVP Volleyball players.