US Weekly: Volleyball Star Sets Sights on 2028 Olympics Alongside CHS Alumna Sister Avery
By Molly McGuigan
US Weekly
Madisen Skinner has three NCAA championships under her belt, but the volleyball star is setting her sights even higher as she looks to the future.
“It’s groundbreaking and it’s something that’s really hard to do,” Skinner, 22, told Us Weekly of her three-peat at Influential Beach presented by Brand Innovators on Tuesday, June 18. “There have been people who have gone four for four, and that’s my goal.”
After one championship-winning year with the Kentucky Wildcats and two with the Texas Longhorns, Skinner is hoping for another winning season as she enters her senior year at the University of Texas at Austin. As the recipient of the 2023 Honda Sports Award for volleyball and the youngest member of the U.S. women’s national volleyball team, her chances are high.
Yet Skinner has even bigger goals beyond college, as she is hoping to follow in her sister’s footsteps and join her on the Olympic stage.
“[My sister] is the reason I started playing volleyball,” Skinner told Us. “I have to give all the credit and the praise to her. She’s currently about to compete for Team USA at the Olympics. So, she’s amazing at what she does and is an inspiration to me.”
That would be College of Health Sciences alumna and UK national champion volleyballer Avery Skinner, who was selected this month to the 2024 United States Olympic volleyball team. She will become the first-ever Kentucky Volleyball player to compete in an Olympic Games.
Madisen got to share the court with Avery, 25, for one year here at UK, and the sisters led the Wildcats to their first-ever NCAA volleyball championship title in 2020. Avery currently plays volleyball in Italy for Chieri and will be making her Olympics debut in Paris this summer with the U.S. women’s national volleyball team, who earned their first-ever gold medal in Tokyo four years ago.
Madisen is eager to live up to her sister’s legacy.
“I would love to [compete in the Olympics],” Madisen told Us. “My goal is L.A. ’28. Fingers crossed Avery and I will be playing together on the same roster competing for Team USA. That’s definitely my next goal that I’m working towards.”
The U.S. Women went into the 2024 season ranked No. 2 in the world. The team has competed in 12 Olympic Games, including the last 10. The U.S. Women qualified for the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, which the United States boycotted.
Avery graduated from UK in 2021 with a dual degree in interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education and Communication Sciences and Disorders. In 2021, just after winning the national championship, she sat down with us to discuss why she came to UK and the CSD program.
“I love all of the CSD faculty members,” she said. “They do so much for the students, and they really are there for office hours, extra office hours, advice on career, future careers, really everything. They care so much about us students. And I’ve seen that a lot. And then, even just with the students in my classes, I’ve gotten to know them well.”
The U.S. Women's Volleyball Team has won one Olympic gold medal (2020), three silver medals (1984, 2008 and 2012) and two bronze medals (1992 and 2016).
Madisen — who is featured in RISE Women in Sports, on newsstands now — also feels hopeful for women’s sports more broadly.
“We’re seeing the most viewership and the most engagement across the board, which is awesome,” Madisen told Us. “Now the question is, how do we keep that going and how do we maximize it and help it continue to grow? It’s definitely exciting just to look around and see people getting the recognition they deserve because we work so hard.”
With reporting by Amanda Williams and Ryan Clark