Beach Volleyball: USA's best getting better

KUSA - The pain in Kerri Walsh's right shoulder didn't keep her from rising to the top of the world beach volleyball rankings. Now that she's had everything cleaned up, watch out.

"The only way it's going to affect me in '08 and Beijing is I'm going to be better," Walsh said in a telephone interview to promote the AVP's new winter indoor tour. "Last time I had my shoulder surgery, in college, it made me a better player. I needed to fix some of my mechanics, so that's what I'm really excited about."

The Olympic gold medalists in 2004, Walsh and partner Misty May-Treanor are the top-ranked women's team in the world, having qualified for the Beijing Games a year early by winning each of the eight international tournaments they entered in 2007.

Their domination of the world tour gives them a chance to take it easy this season, an advantage that could come in handy as Walsh recuperates from last fall's surgery to remove the bone chips, bone spurs and scar tissue that had been building up in her right shoulder.

"It was a long time coming," said Walsh, who last had surgery on the shoulder in college, nine years ago. "I had been playing in pain for the past couple of years. I just wanted to get it cleaned up."

Walsh hadn't served with her right arm since the operation - "I got pretty good with my left hand," she said. But, she began working on her right arm serve in January and pronounced herself ahead of schedule at that time.

"It's a little bit scary, but everyone is reassuring me that if I do work hard, I'm going to be fine," she said. "So I'm working really hard."

According to her biography on the U.S. Olympic Team website, Walsh believes every great athlete on a mission has the same state of mind. Whether she is working her butt off to improve her game/life or slacking on the job, this thought is ALWAYS on her mind. "Today, today, today is what matters. Take advantage of it, make a difference, smile more, work harder; it will pay off."

For Kerri Walsh's complete U.S. Olympic Team biography (including her thoughts of competing in a tiny bikini) log on to www.usolympicteam.com/26_1091.htm

Walsh is also working with her Olympic sponsor, Lenovo, on a charitable auction featuring signed limited edition laptops based on the 2008 Olympic torch. For more details please visit:

http://www.lenovohopefundauctions.com/en/

And check out the official 2008 Beijing Olympics site:

http://en.beijing2008.cn/