While all eyes are looking on at Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics, Kerri Walsh Jennings can't wait for what's to come four years from now in a place that helped her becomde the beach volleyball legend she is today.
The five-time Olympian and three-time gold medalist is excited the 2028 Summer Games will be in Los Angeles, a place that is exceptional considering her sport of choice.
Walsh Jennings is hoping that Santa Monica, the birthplace of modern beach volleyball, will be the home of competition for the 2028 Games.
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Walsh Jennings, who partnered with Santa Monica Travel & Tourism ahead of the men's and women's beach volleyball finals in Paris, explained why this legendary part of Los Angeles is "ideally" the place where the best in the world should converge in 2028.
"The sand is deep, it’s very clean and it’s just where you want to be because all the great ones played there, trained there and cut their teeth there," she told Fox News Digital. "For me as a young athlete coming up, Santa Monica was a big part of the journey for becoming excellent. Looking ahead to 2028, I know we’re going to have four amazing teams representing our country — two men [teams] and two women.
"I just can’t think of a better city to represent our great sport."
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As Walsh Jennings put it, you don't have to sell California beaches to anyone as a destination to land on, but "not every beach is created equal."
"In my humble opinion, the city of Santa Monica and their 3½ miles of amazing, white, sandy beaches are absolutely perfect, especially for my life as a beach volleyball player," she explained. "I’ve traveled the world I have competed in very iconic locations, similar to Paris with the Eiffel Tower stadium and Copa Cabana in Rio. But I can’t think of a better beach to compete on, to play on, to have my family play on than the beaches in Santa Monica. It’s pretty incredible.
"As I look ahead to the Olympic Games of 2028, knowing that beach volleyball will be highlighted again because Santa Monica is literally the modern birthplace of beach volleyball, I just can’t think of a better city to represent our great sport."
Almost a century ago in 1930, the two-person team on sand, the modern way we see beach volleyball today, was born in Santa Monica. It's why Walsh Jennings isn't the only one thinking it's only right to see beach volleyball played at its birthplace, which is what Santa Monica Travel & Tourism President and CEO Misti Kerns is preparing for.
"Santa Monica has a long legacy of welcoming everyone, from Olympic athletes to beginners, to play and explore our sandy shores. We join Los Angeles as it prepares to welcome the Olympics in 2028," Kerns said to Fox News Digital.
"Santa Monica will be the perfect place for sports enthusiasts to base their stay at the beach. Not only do we offer a culture of outdoor movement, the destination offers a wide variety of choices from our 40 incredible hotel properties, an abundance of restaurants with outdoor dining in our eight neighborhoods for shopping and a wealth of entertainment."
Restaurants and shopping in Santa Monica are Walsh Jennings' bread and butter. While she was fortifying her skills to reach Olympic heights, she was also enjoying everything the city has to offer.
"When I moved down there, it’s kinda like when you go to North Carolina and you go to the gym, and you’re like, ‘Oh, Jordan played here,'" she said. "Santa Monica, to me, is that. … The best of the best in our sport played in Santa Monica.
"So, when I moved down to (Southern California), I would go and train with Misty May-Treanor, my partner of 10 years. She grew up on the beaches of Santa Monica."
That duo won three golds in three straight Olympics, and they are now a part of the great history the Santa Monica sands have produced.
It's tough for Walsh Jennings to see the U.S. not return home from Paris with any medals in men's or women's beach volleyball, but she's confident the talent is there to change that when they're on home soil in four years.
"I know we fell short in Paris. No one made it to the semifinal round, which is very sad," she said. "But that doesn’t take away from the greatness of those athletes. So, I think that the fact that LA is going to be host to the Games, it’s going to create more fire for the athletes to get even better, to reinforce themselves and take all the learnings from Paris and kick butt on the sands in LA."
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