Q&A with Gabrielle Reece

By Richard Deitsch, Sports Illustrated

The 6'3" former pro volleyball player (and occasional model) will conduct interviews for USA Network's upcoming PGA Tour Sunday, a live weekly one-hour show that debuts on Jan. 12.

SI: Your show will be competing against Sunday NFL pregame shows. Why should I watch you instead of, say, Terry Bradshaw?

Reece: Well, first of all my first interview is with Charles Barkley, and I can't imagine anyone more entertaining. I'm going to take golfers into non-golfing environments because you never see them that way. I want to take David Duval skydiving and I want to take Tiger Woods diving. Sergio Garc’a wants to go surfing, so Laird [Hamilton, her husband, a pro surfer] has said he'll help me out. I thought it would be a great way to tell a story about them without ever asking stupid questions. The less I can talk, the better.

SI: What is the best thing and the worst thing about golf?

Reece: The best thing about golf is ultimately what it teaches you about yourself. And the worst thing is how freakin' nervous it can make you feel. You just sometimes wonder if your game will be there today. That's the worst feeling. In what other sport do you have that?

SI: What's your home golf course?

Reece: I practice at Mountain Gate in Los Angeles and in Hawaii at The Dunes.

SI: How much inspiration do you draw from Babe Zaharias and Althea Gibson, both of whom made the transition from another sport to pro golf?

Reece: I thought about both but especially Babe. She gave me the audacity to go, OK, go for it. I saw a documentary on her when I was 10. We only had two channels in St. Thomas (where Reece grew up), so most of my good programming came from TBS.

SI: If you were 5-foot-3 instead of 6-foot-3, what would you be?

Reece: I can't say I would be a gymnast because I don't know if I would be in sports. I have no clue. I would be a different person because a lot of my personality has been formed from having to be in this big body really early. I think if I was 5-foot-3, I would have been really popular and dated a lot more in high school. I didn't develop like the pretty girl. When you're 6 feet at 12 years old, guys aren't like, "You're a fox." It's more like, "You're the woman who ate the city."

SI: Your husband has been called "The Human Specimen," and Elle once included you among the five most beautiful women in the world. Can a couple be too good looking?

Reece: If my husband heard you say that he'd be like, "What are you talking about?" He's kind of anti that, and so am I in my own way.

SI: This from the couple who posed for the cover of the Sports Illustrated Women swimsuit issue?

Reece: Yeah, but in terms of how we function in our real life. Laird's not going around getting his eyebrows plucked and stuff. And I don't walk around as the Human Barbie. I imagine couples can be too good looking. I certainly don't think we are that couple.

SI: Anna Kournikova has made millions of dollars but never won a WTA singles tournament. Ultimately, is she good or bad for women's sports?

Reece: She's good because they're talking about it, and women's sports needs all the interesting colors it can get. She brings another color.

SI: You famously posed for Playboy in January 2001. How important is sex when selling athletics?

Reece: They're pretty close. I don't think it's very important, but it has a strong role.

SI: We know how your looks have helped you. How have your looks hurt you?

Reece: I think sometimes when I go to make a move on something, people try to disqualify any talent that I have or any hard work that I've done. I'll give you an example: Some chick said about me playing golf, "Oh, what's next? Is Britney Spears going to try to play golf?" Well, what was my background? I was a professional athlete for how many years? I understand and it doesn't bother me, but people forget to remember that I worked and performed.

SI: Can you describe, for the volleyball-challenged, the feeling of smashing a ball in someone's face?

Reece: It's great. It's like a release. You know how in all sports there are moments of perfection? Well, volleyball is all about timing, and in a way when you hit a really good ball, there's that moment when you can get the aggression out and it looks really cool.

SI: What's the hardest thing about aging for an athlete?

Reece: The awareness of how much time you have left. When you're younger, you just think you can do it forever and then you start to realize that you can't. That's hard, and it's made really obvious to you when you have someone who's a bit younger than you and you see the difference. But there's sometimes something great about that because you feel you're getting cured of it all. As you get older you love the feeling and glory of it, but there comes a point when I believe if you're trying to develop other parts of your life, you can be OK with it having to end. And that's kind of cool because when you're younger you think, Oh, my God, I'm going to die when I can't do this.

SI: You live in Hawaii and spend many weeks in L.A. Are you a different person in Hawaii than you are in California?

Reece: I enjoy the movement and opportunity and sort of the unlimitedness of California, but it's nice to just wonder "What are we doing?" in Hawaii. I've been doing it for seven years. When I was in college, I was playing ball, going to school, and then living in New York City. I think I've always had somewhat of a duality. I never had only one job. I was either playing ball or writing or doing TV or modeling.

SI: People describe you as a model, a volleyball player, a broadcaster, a golfer. So who are you?

Reece: I'm all of those, but I associate the most with athlete. I don't think I'm even that way because I'm not a jock-like person. My attitude on a lot of things is very male, so that is associated with athletics. When people go, "Who is Gabby?" I mean, who is anyone? Everyone's a mixture of a bunch of stuff.

 

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