Jake Gibb took an unusual route to becoming an Olympic beach volleyball champion: He played golf and tried out for basketball (but was too short.) It wasn’t until after he served a two year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Costa Rica that he and his twin brother started playing volleyball together in the backyard. Gibb didn’t play sports in college at all.
Gibb married and his wife encouraged him to move to California and try for a career in beach volleyball (since there isn’t probably much call for it in Utah, where he lived.) He promised his wife he’d give it up if he weren’t playing professionally within two years. She supported the family and he went to work entering the sport. At the end of the two year time limit, he was ranked number ten in the nation with his partner.
He took his first championship in 2004 and since then has won at least eight titles. In 2005 he became the MVP of the AVP.
He joined his current partner in 2005, when, though top ranked, his partner decided to go a different direction. Jake could have chosen anyone at that point, and the person he chose surprised many. The two were from backgrounds that were worlds apart. Gibb had grown up in a traditional LDS home, one of eleven children. His partner, Sean Rosenthal, was the child of a drug addict in a single parent home. He never knew his father while Gibb lists his father has his greatest influence. Rosenthal was an unknown in the sport and Gibb was the top ranked player. The two hit it off, however, and had matching goals—they both wanted to be in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.
They set out to build the reputation and skills needed to make it to the Olympics and, as the qualifying date neared, to get the requisite scores needed to qualify. They succeeded and are, as of this writing, happily winning in Beijing.
Sources:
http://mormontimes.com/MITN_sports.php?id=1503