Beach volleyball star Gabrielle Reece likes to stay busy. In addition to a full season of play in the Women's Beach Volleyball League (WBVL), she models, works on television, and has written a book. On the sand, Reece led her league in kills (unreturnable spikes) for four straight seasons (1993-96) and won WBVL Offensive Player of the Year honors two consecutive times (1994 and 1995). A star athlete and popular model, she wants to show that it is all right to be big and beautiful.

Growing up

On the move

Gabrielle Reece was born January 6, 1970, in La Jolla, California. Her parents divorced when she was only two years old and her father--a native of the island of Trinidad--died in a plane crash when she was five years old. Reece moved to Mexico, where her mother, Terry, found a job training dolphins in a circus owned by friends. Reece participated by...