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Gabrielle Reece, the middle blocker
and team captain for the powerful pro beach volleyball Team Nike, is
considered by many to be an Amazon beauty.
Named one of the 20 most influential women in sports and hailed as a new
female idol, Reece embodies what women aspire to be today: beautiful,
feminine, competitive, tough and intelligent. Exemplifying the '90s
Renaissance woman, she juggles roles as a professional athlete, a model, a
journalist and a television personality. As a commentator for MTV Sports
and the first female athlete to design and promote her own cross-trainer
shoe, Reece has proved that there's little she can't accomplish!
Growing up in Long Island, New York, Reece experienced a turbulent
childhood. Her parents separated when she was young, and her mother,
Terry, abandoned her at age three and a half to take a job in Mexico City.
Terry had asked her friends Joe and Norette Zucarello to take Reece and
never told her daughter that she was leaving.
It wasn't long before Reece realized that her mother wasn't coming home.
Her father's visits were infrequent, and when Reece was five she was given
the terrible news that he had been killed in a plane crash. From this
moment forward, Reece would consider Joe and Norette her real parents and
her inspiration — even after she returned to her mother when she was
seven.
Reece's unpredictable life changed when she discovered sports. She found
that athletics gave her a direction and a discipline that the rest of her
life lacked. After winning a volleyball scholarship to college, Reece went
on to pursue careers in professional beach volleyball, modeling and
television. Currently, Reece enjoys a stable life. She's in control of her
career and is happily married to surfer Laird Hamilton. |
