May-Treanor, Walsh Reunite; Branagh Trains with Akers

B.J. Hoeptner Evans
Manager, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: (719) 228-6800
E-Mail: bj.evans@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (March 10, 2011) – U.S. beach volleyball players and two-time Olympic gold medalists Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh announced March 6 that they would reunite their partnership in 2011 in hopes of playing in the 2012 London Games.

May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Walsh (San Jose, Calif.) last played together in 2009 in a dual tournament between beach volleyball teams from the United States and Brazil. Prior to that, the pair won the gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing to add to their 2004 gold medal from Athens.

After the 2008 Games, May-Treanor tore her Achilles tendon while participating in ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. While she was recovering, Walsh took time out to have two children: Joey, born in May of 2009, and Sundance, born in May of 2010.

May-Treanor returned to the beach in 2010, playing on both the FIVB and AVP tours with Nicole Branagh (Orinda, Calif.). However, after the AVP suspended its season and declared bankruptcy in 2010, May-Treanor stepped back from the sport and focused on her husband Matt Treanor a Major League Baseball player who competed in the 2010 World Series with the Texas Rangers.

Walsh competed with Branagh in the last two FIVB tournaments of the 2010 season, winning the final tournament in Phuket, Thailand. Walsh and Branagh had planned to compete together in 2011, until May-Treanor reached out to Walsh.

Branagh is now reportedly training with Angie Akers (Fort Wayne, Ind.), who competed the last two years with Tyra Turner (Fort Myers Beach, Fla.), who is now pregnant with her first child. Branagh and Akers competed together on the AVP Tour in 2005.

May-Treanor and Walsh first joined forces in 2001 and quickly became a force to be reckoned with, reaching the podium in eight out of 11 FIVB tournaments in 2002, including five first-place finishes.

They continued their success in 2003, when they won all eight AVP tournaments in which they competed and five out of eight FIVB tournaments (along with one second and one third).

They won their first Olympic gold medal in 2004 in Athens and did so without losing a set; a feat they repeated in Beijing.

In winning the gold medal in Beijing, May-Treanor and Walsh extended their match winning streak to 108 (international and domestic). They extended the streak to 112 before losing to Branagh and Elaine Youngs (El Toro, Calif.) in the finals of the 2008 AVP event in Cincinnati.

Tags: Angie Akers, Beach, Beach Volleyball, Kerri Walsh, Misty May-Treanor, Nicole Branagh, Tyra Turner, U.S. Beach Team