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Kerri Walsh Jennings won third gold medal while pregnant

Laura Byrne Contributor
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Kerri Walsh Jennings was carrying something more valuable than her gold medal when she returned home from the London 2012 Olympics.

Turns out Walsh Jennings was actually five weeks pregnant when she and partner Misty May-Treanor won their third gold medal in beach volleyball at the 2012 Olympics, finishing off a nearly flawless Olympic winning streak.

“When I was throwing my body around fearlessly, and going for gold for our country, I was pregnant, and today I’m 11 weeks pregnant,” Walsh Jennings revealed on “The Today Show.”

May-Treanor was the first to tell her she was “probably pregnant” after Walsh Jennings admitted to being “unreasonably moody”, according to Walsh Jennings. After years of being friends and partners, Misty noticed Kerri was not her normal happy self.

“I thought it could have been the stress of the games and travel kind of throws your schedule off, but I knew. At some point, you’re late and then you start feeling something. And I definitely started feeling something in London,” said Walsh Jennings.

The pair worked on their mental game with sports psychologist Michael Gervais during the London Olympics.

“It’s a really emotional journey that we’ve been on and it’s been so great for so long. But it’s coming to an end and that’s really heavy. It’s heavy in a beautiful way but we were taking it to the other way where it just weighed on us too much,” Walsh Jennings told NBC during the games.

This will be her third child with husband Casey Jennings. They had been trying to have another child before the games, but they had no idea they were expecting until after Walsh Jennings started competing.

Casey now teases Kerri that she has a baby for every gold medal she wins. According to NBC’s chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman, Kerri did not put the baby in any danger by competing in the games.

But most importantly for fans of the Olympics, Kerri promises she to be back in bikini shape for Rio 2016.