Gabrielle Reece biography
Date of birth : 1970-01-06
Date of death : -
Birthplace : La Jolla, California
Nationality : American
Category : Sports
Last modified : 2011-08-24
Credited as : Volleyball player, fashion model, actress
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Reece was born in La Jolla, California and raised in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. She returned to the U.S. mainland for the eleventh grade, when she took up sports. She accepted a volleyball scholarship from the Florida State University, where she majored in communications, and in volleyball she led the league in kills four times and blocks once. In 1989, she moved to New York City to pursue more rigorously a parallel career as a sports fashion model and also continue in her pro volleyball career. In 1997, she was selected for induction into the Florida State University Athletic Hall of Fame. Reece set two school volleyball records in solo blocks (240) and total blocks (747), both of which still stand. FSU inducted Reece into the Florida State University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1997. Her father, who was Afro-Trinidadian "a native of Trinidad and Tobago", was killed in a plane crash when Gabrielle was five.
On November 30, 1997, Gabrielle married the Hawaiian big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton. She filed for divorce in January 2001, but reconciled a year later.
