While Kerri Walsh Jennings was in the process of winning four Olympic medals, there was no single moment when she decided to become as much of a leader off the court as on it.
When she played, there was no professional beach league for her to compete in between Olympics. There was no players’ union for her to join either. “When things got hard and when I felt our sport and the athletes were being underserved, it was just a natural time for me to say, ‘Hey, this isn’t good enough,’” Walsh Jennings said Thursday on stage during Sportico’s annual women’s sports-focused RISE event. She’s now an owner in Major League Volleyball, one of many speakers harnessing the industry’s momentum to build more for today’s stars.
“There’s no greater time in history to be a female athlete” @kerrileewalsh explains why women’s sports is on top of the world right now 🌍 pic.twitter.com/7X21xOTcxX
At 28 years old, Sabrina Ionescu is part of a generation of athletes who played college sports just before NIL changed the game. Before her time at the University of Oregon, she had to push to create a women’s basketball team at her middle school. She’s now advising current UO players and watching newcomers shake up the WNBA. “You’re able to see, especially in our sport, athletes that are coming in from college and they bring… new eyes to the game,” she said. “Then the sports fan who was a fan of one person becomes a fan of 150.”
