Kerri Walsh Quotations

My job is to be fit and I'm really blessed that I get to go and work out and live a really healthy lifestyle.

The advice I will give my children, if and when they have Olympic aspirations, will be to go for it.

In my heart, I'm so far from done.

The balancing act of motherhood and a career, and being a wife, is something that I don't think I'll ever perfect, but I love the challenge of it.

It's the best thing in the world, the most challenging thing in the world, being a parent, and one of the first lessons I learned was to ask for help.

I used to sleep, eat, breathe volleyball. Now I have that with my kids.

I think the No. 1 thing that helps me get through every single day is the support of my friends and my family.

My mom is a constant in my life in so many ways.

Growing up, Michael Jordan was my Olympic hero.

I want to win a gold medal in London.

On the beach, the attitudes are more progressive, so it would be cool to do that as a subset of what we already do - as long as we play on a guy's net, so guys don't spike in our faces.

Going overseas is a vacation. There's so much going on at home. There's other things in our life, so we need to get that extreme focus back.

I think the first time we played them it was a rivalry. You could see how great they were going to be and obviously they were going to improve.

They're a great team and this tour has been growing incrementally over the past four years that we've been on it. Right now it's Rachel, Elaine and Misty and I. We came up short, but we lost to a great team today.

It's a lot of fun going to these things because you get to see a lot of the other athletes and people from the city. The day we won the medal, we went to the Sports Illustrated party because it's the party to go to.

They just played great, and we were not in sync. They earned the win. I hope it never happens again, and we know what we have to do.

I much prefer playing with her than against her.

Ideally we're going to stay at an American hotel. We just want to take every precaution. Because if you get sick out there, and you're playing in that hot sun and you get depleted, it's going to be a problem. So that would be the only other thing I think that athletes on a whole are going to be worried about. But again, we have to do our part and take every precaution and be smart.

As far as my sport is concerned, my mission is to make it as big as it deserves to be. We've been growing, it's just not as noticeable. The NCAA picked beach volleyball up to be a championship sport, and it was the fastest test sport that's been adopted. That's a really big deal for our sport because that just means the USA system is going to have a feeder system from the college system.

I'm doing mental training as well. So, you know, body, mind, and spirit - everything is being addressed, every single day. Generally I'll have three training sessions a day.

We want to seal the deal that we're the best team that's ever happened,

People think we have coasted the last four years. We fought, we had a lot of battles. We've always had to battle.

We don't have a World Series or a Super Bowl, so to be able to come home with a gold medal is amazing. I want to do it again in four more years.

Sometimes it's just the beer and bikinis that get people to come and watch, but it's the competition that's keeping them there.

Well there's only one way to prepare for playing beach volleyball, and that's by getting in the sand. But offseason is really important because generally I'm staying off the sand and getting my feet under me, and it's really important for my body to know what it feels like to have sound footing under me.

I love that our sport is sexy. I think it is appropriately so.

I think the hard part is over. Now it's time for us to play.

I take my role as an ambassador for the sport, and as a role model for boys, girls, mommies, daddies - whoever it is - very, very seriously. I know the impact my role models have had in my life, and I'm in a really beautiful position to be able to be that for others.

My support system, in my surgeon, my P.T., my pilates, my weightlifting, everything that I'm doing to make my body and my mind stronger is just, you know, has been on point. So I feel very prepared for the journey to qualify, and the journey to wear the gold medal.

I want to be the best role model I can be for my family. I want my husband and I to be the ones our kids look to for guidance, to be the great role models that I had with my parents growing up, so for as hard as we work, I want our kids to see us having fun. I want our kids to know that we have to feel our bodies. And nutrition is a huge part of that.

Every time I've gone to Brazil I've gotten sick upon return. You know, it's just a different situation there. And I take every precaution - eating cooked foods and staying away from tap water, brushing my teeth with bottled water - and yet I still manage to get sick. So I'm just going to stay on point, bring my probiotics.

I want to be efficient and effective in everything I do. I start every day with a protein shake, with my vanilla Almond Breeze, and my kids start their day the same way as well. [Nutrition] is a huge piece of the puzzle. It's not just about working hard and being physical. It's about being smart and mindful of what's going in and out of our bodies. And also taking the time to enjoy things, and to appreciate the process.

I want to be the best role model I can be for my family.

[Nutrition] is a huge piece of the puzzle. It's not just about working hard and being physical. It's about being smart and mindful of what's going in and out of our bodies.

I honestly feel like my job since I was 22 has been to be an Olympian.

Misty May was looking for a partner, I was looking to stay at home, and the beach just came calling.

I switched from indoor to beach I had been playing indoor for 12 years. And, to be honest, to make a living indoors you have to go overseas. I am such a family girl and just wanted to be home, so that didn't appeal to me.

That's a very privileged job and I love it with all my heart. I'm planning on playing my best volleyball to date throughout 2016 and certainly during the Olympics.

I want our kids to know that we have to feel our bodies. And nutrition is a huge part of that.

I want to be efficient and effective in everything I do.

At some point I go back on the sand to get my sand legs. Because it takes a good month for my legs to catch up with everything, with the displacement and all that stuff. So right now we're training on the beach six days a week for practice, and that's generally about two and a half hours. And then I'm doing pilates three times a week,

It's not a sprint to get in shape.

And it's given me great perspective. It makes me really focused and efficient, which - I was focused before I had babies but I wasted a lot of time. Prior to having babies I thought I thought I was so busy and now I realize just how ignorant I was.

Well, being a working mommy is something I've always wanted to be. My mother is my biggest role model and she showed me how to do it right. She was very present in our lives and has a great career of her own. Same with my father. So I knew it was possible going in to stay closely connected to my children while also chasing big dreams.

At some point you're like, gosh, this rehab is never going to end, and then all of a sudden I'm full strength and I'm about to go to my first competition. So I feel really great.

I just think the whole mindset of Pilates is huge. Pilates 101 is just to use your core in the right way. A lot of us don't use every little detailed muscle in our core. We all use the big muscles in our body and don't focus on the little ones. That mindset and awareness is huge. I take that with me wherever I go.

I would take all the precautions, I'm going to bring my natural remedies, keep the mosquitoes away naturally and I'm going to bring my DEET. I'm going to do my part. And again, it's something, when a baby is involved you don't want to take any risks. So I would just exercise a lot of caution and do my part and then get tested and go for it.

Misty [May] and I had something magical, and I think at the basis of that was so much trust. Especially in the really competitive situations where it really felt do-or-die, we were unbreakable. We always stuck together, even if we lost we were together.

I think educating myself has been huge. I feel like the way it's presented in the media is that if you got to Brazil you're flipping a coin on your health. I don't think it has to be that way. If I were wanting to have a baby right after the Olympics I would take precautions, and then when the Olympics were over I would get tested to make sure I didn't have the virus in me, and then I'd go for it.

But they've [my children] made me better. They hold me more accountable for who I am and who I aspire to be, and they make me want to be better. And that's not just as a mommy, but as a woman and as an athlete.

Being a working mommy is something I've always wanted to be. My mother is my biggest role model and she showed me how to do it right.

I do a program called Fast Twitch twice a week, basically my lifting and strength training, I'm working with a spine specialist, which has been a new addition for me since my surgery to really get some great support for my shoulder, and I really love the way my body feels. It takes the pressure off my lower back and kind of just shares duties, really, with my body.

When I'm sore, ice is my best friend. It really works. I take omega-3s every day, which helps with inflammation. And I try to eat things that won't inflame my joints, like fresh fruits and veggies, lean protein, and seafood.

What's not to love about us! People got to know Misty and me in Athens. We've continued to be successful and continued to connect with the fans. I promise we're going to be tough to get rid of.

We had two goals...One was to cherish every moment together, cherish the journey because the journey allows you to learn and grow. The other was to win a gold medal.

At the point when I switched from indoor to beach I had been playing indoor for 12 years. And, to be honest, to make a living indoors you have to go overseas. I am such a family girl and just wanted to be home, so that didn't appeal to me. Misty May was looking for a partner, I was looking to stay at home, and the beach just came calling. And mostly I stuck with it because I loved the challenge of it, but also just the autonomy of it. It's two on two, just you and your partner, you're not one of the herd. And the lifestyle is unbeatable.

We were very aggressive, and when we're aggressive, it's hard to stop us.

We have to fight the entire time, we can't start at the end when it's getting down to crunch time. We can't leave anything on the floor.

I firmly believe that when you have a foundation of respect, love of what you're doing, and a shared vision, so much is possible.

If you are not prepared, you cannot work out intensely. If you do not perform, you cannot get results, and if you can't do your best to recover, you won't get the benefits of your hard work.

To me, crying is not a sign of weakness. She wants it that bad and she puts her whole heart into it. She had really high expectations, and that's why she's so good. She just had a bad game.

You have to rely on your support system. Growing up, I always thought it was a sign of weakness to ask for help, but now I realize it's really a sign of strength to say, 'I need help, I can't do it all.'

You touch every other ball and, if you screw up, you only have one more person to back you up. You can't go hide in the corner.

Adversity, if you allow it to, will fortify you and make you the best you can be.

That wall is your mind playing tricks on you. You just need to say, 'One more step, I can do this. I have more in me.' You'll be so proud of yourself once you push yourself past your threshold.

Breathe, believe, and battle.' My former coach, Troy Tanner, told us that before each match. Breathe-be in the moment. Believe-have faith that you can rise above it. Battle-you gotta be prepared to go for as long as it takes.

Passion is a huge prerequisite to winning. It makes you willing to jump through hoops, go through all the ups and downs and everything in between to reach your goal.

A true competitor works the hardest, cares the most, and makes the best of what they have.

I don't want to be better than you or her or him - I want to be better than I am right now