Kerri Walsh Jennings

Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh was one-half of what was considered the world's greatest women's beach volleyball duo with Misty May-Treanor, winning top honors at three successful Summer Olympic Games, while Jennings also broke sports records for most wins while partnered with a new teammate, April Ross. Born Kerri Lee Walsh in Santa Clara, California, she was raised in Scotts Valley before moving to the Central Coast city of San Jose. There, she began playing volleyball and basketball for Archbishop Mitty High School, and led the school to three state volleyball championships between 1993 and 1995. Her skill at the sport earned her a volleyball scholarship to Stanford University, where she became only the second player in collegiate volleyball history to be chosen first-team All-American for four consecutive years. By the time she graduated in 2000, Jennings had led the team to 122-11 record and was named co-National Player of the Year in 1999. She made her first trip to the Olympics in 2000, which was initially marred by a false positive on a drug test, but she was soon cleared and made it to fourth place as part of the U.S women's indoor team. The following year, she forged her partnership with Misty May-Treanor, which by 2002, was the top-ranked beach volleyball duo in the world. Together, they won a record 90 straight matches, including the 2003 finals, in which they defeated the then-world champion Brazilian team. Jennings and May-Treanor traveled to Athens to participate in the 2004 Summer Olympics, where they captured the gold in women's beach volleyball without losing a single set. The duo's winning streak continued for a total of 112 games and 19 titles, including a second gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Before posting their first loss in 2008 at the AVP Crocs Cup Shootout. In 2012, Jennings and May-Treanor won their third and final Olympic gold in London, shortly before May-Treanor retired that same year. Jennings continued to play with new partner and fellow Olympics April Ross, which proved equally successful; the new pair won three titles in just five events, while Jennings broke the record for most wins by a female professional volleyball player when they earned top honors at the FIVB Grand Slam in China. Jennings and Ross - the top-ranked women's duo among U.S. women's teams - qualified for the 2016 Olympics in May of 2016.