Kerri Walsh Jennings was born on August 15, 1978 in Santa Clara, CA. Her father, Tim, played minor league baseball with the Oakland A’s and semi-pro basketball. Her mother, Margie, was a two-time Most Valuable Player in volleyball at Santa Clara University. Kerri is the second of four, with one older brother, Marte, and two younger sisters, Kelli and KC.
Kerri graduated from Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, California before attending Stanford University. During her time playing for the Cardinal, Kerri became the second volleyball player in NCAA history to be named a four-time First-Team All American. In 1999, Kerri joined the United States Women’s Indoor National Team and was named to the 2000 Olympic Team which finished fourth in Sydney.
After graduating from Stanford in 2001, Kerri moved her game to the beach and partnered with Misty May-Treanor. The duo went on to be considered the greatest beach volleyball team of all time, winning three straight Olympic gold medals (2004, 2008, 2012). In route to their three Olympic gold medals, the pair won 21 consecutive Olympic matches (only losing one set to Austria in 2012) during their 11-year run together. Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor also won three straight World Championships (2005, 2007, 2009).
In 2013, Kerri surpassed former partner Misty May-Treanor, and set the all-time record for tournament victories by a women’s beach player with 113 wins.
Kerri is married to fellow American beach volleyball player Casey Jennings. The couple has three children, sons Joseph (2009) and Sundance (2010) and daughter Scout (2013).