Ikea? Isn't that for the under 35 crowd?
Speaking of AVP in SF, Kerri has been getting some local attention including interview with Gary Radnich on KRON and airtime while attending a Giants Game with husband. This is an article from Friday's Mercurynews.
www.mercurynews.com/sports/ci_6891440 Six Feet of Sunshine: Walsh enjoying the beach volleyball life
By Mark Emmons
Mercury News
Article Launched: 09/14/2007 01:40:00 AM PDT
Not a day goes by that strangers don't stop dead in their tracks and stare at Kerri Walsh. Sure, they may mistakenly call her Misty. Or maybe even Kristi.
But they know.
"I really can't go anywhere without being noticed and having people coming up to me and saying 'Hi'," Walsh said. "Even when they get the name wrong, at least they remember that I'm a beach volleyball player. It even happens in places like bathrooms, which can be weird."
Volleyball on sand is a niche sport, but Walsh has crossed over into mainstream celebrity as America's foremost bikini-wearing athlete. An Archbishop Mitty and Stanford product, Walsh also is building a résumé as perhaps the best U.S. female volleyball player ever.
She and partner Misty May-Treanor - the one she is sometimes confused with on the street - are the defending Olympic beach volleyball gold medalists and probably will be the tandem to beat at next summer's Beijing Olympics.
They have competed all over the globe this year and earned their third consecutive world championship title. Starting today they will be the favorites at the AVP Best of the Beach Tournament being held at San Francisco's Piers 30 and 32.
Yes, life's a beach.
The complete package
Walsh, 29, has emerged as one of the country's most recognizable Olympic-sport athletes, said Bob Dorfman, executive creative director for Pickett Advertising Agency in San Francisco.
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"It's performance, personality and sex appeal," said Dorfman, who specializes in the endorsement potential of athletes. "That's the big three, and she's got all of them. Add in the fact that she's intelligent and what's not to like?"
That's why her sponsorship portfolio includes Speedo swimsuits, Wilson sporting goods and Bolle sunglasses. Walsh also has been featured in the Gatorade "Rain" TV commercials where she is hatched out of a volleyball.
And as Beijing gets closer, Walsh only will become more visible.
"Advertisers try to figure out who are going to be the big stars going into the Games," Dorfman added. "Kerri Walsh and Misty May seem like sure things."
Yet Walsh still seems surprised by all the attention. She wonders why a TV show was interested enough to do a segment on her wedding to fellow beach player Casey Jennings.
"There's a real premium on our time now," Walsh added.
Who knew spiking a volleyball could be a career path?
Genetically aided
Her nickname is Six Feet of Sunshine, and that's a testament to her nature off the court. But on the sand, she is 6 feet, 3 inches of ball-smashing intimidation.
In volleyball parlance, she is a kill machine. Blink and you'll miss her rocket hits. Opponents always run the risk of being "six-packed" - slang for getting smacked in the face with the ball.
Walsh said she's "pretty blessed with my genetics," and she's not kidding. Her mother was a volleyball star at Santa Clara. Her father is a 6-8 former San Jose State pitcher who played in the A's organization.
She first made her name in the indoor game. Growing up in Scotts Valley and then Saratoga, Walsh was the Gatorade National Player of the Year her senior season at Mitty. Then came four years as a first-team All-American at Stanford. She was a member of the U.S. indoor team that finished fourth at the Sydney Olympics.
But success, she claims, didn't come so quickly when she migrated to the sand at the invitation of May - a fiery competitor who already was a beach standout.
"I was really terrible when I first came to the beach," she said. "Misty carried me a lot. Every time we lost early on was because of me, which was tough to handle."
Golden girls
As Walsh developed into the best player to rub on sunscreen, they pretty much stopped losing. Now they are volleyball's version of Montana-to-Rice - two supreme athletes who have an uncanny awareness of what the other is going to do.
"It's unbelievable how well we work together," Walsh said.
While they earned the gold medal, NBC provided the platform to stardom. Beach volleyball is part competition and part Baywatch. NBC recognized the ratings bonanza of the athletic women in skimpy swimsuits and made the photogenic pair the darlings of Athens.
"The way we turned our gold into more gold was really thanks to NBC," said Walsh, who is approaching $1.5 million in career winnings with 83 beach victories. "They put us on prime time. That exposure made us who we are more than anything."
Walsh and May-Treanor - who hyphenated her name after marrying Florida Marlins catcher Matt Treanor - are equal partners on the sand. But Walsh is far more recognizable. There are some lines, however, she won't cross when it comes to media exposure.
Body in motion
Attractive female athletes invariably are approached to pose in magazines that trend toward the risque. Walsh always has the same response: No thank you.
"I respect the female body and the choices some people make," Walsh said. "Misty posed for Maxim, and she was gorgeous. I don't think it was inappropriate at all. But that stuff, getting all dolled up, is just not me.
"I think an athletic body in motion is beautiful enough."
After a sub-par 2006, by their standards, Walsh and May-Treanor have returned to dominance this season.
"Every tournament we play in, we're always the top seed," Walsh said. "That's the way we want it."
The sun continues to shine on Walsh, and the sand is between her toes. There's another gold medal to be won.
As the man said, what's not to like?
Contact Mark Emmons at memmons@mercurynews.com
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