Athletes

Kerri Walsh has achieved both national and international acclaim with a successful career on the U.S. beach volleyball team. She made her Olympic beach volleyball debut in Athens where she won a gold medal. Her 2004 season included participating in 55 matches on the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) and Federation Internationale de Volleybally (FIVB) tours where she placed first 32 times. In 2003, Walsh, along with partner Misty May, went 39-0, an AVP Tour record. Also in her 2003 season, Walsh, placed first in all eight tournaments on the AVP tour and she won her second gold medal of the 2003 Swatch-FIVB World Tour. Walsh and May, captured five FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour events in 2002 before being eliminated in the gold-medal match. Despite dropping their final match, Walsh and May finished the 2002 season as the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour top-ranked team with 3,070 points. As the No. 1 team on the FIVB Tour, May and Walsh signed an exclusive contract with the AVP Tour in December of 2002. A former standout on the Stanford University women's volleyball squad, Walsh was a finalist for the Women's Sports Foundation 2004 Sportswoman of the Year Award. At Stanford, she was the first player in Pac-10 history to record 1,500 kills (1,553), 1,200 digs (1,285) and 500 blocks (502). She was also only the second player in NCAA history to receive American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) first-team All-American honors all four seasons. She completed her collegiate career with the best Pac-10 hitting percentage with a .361 mark. She was the AVCA co-Player of the Year during her senior season. Walsh graduated in 1999 with a degree in American studies. (8/04)

For more information on Kerri, check out her website at: www.kerriwalsh.com.