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What: Intimate Portrait: Gabrielle Reece

Channel: Lifetime

When: Sunday, 10 p.m.

The face of Gabrielle Reece is one of the most recognized in sports. She appears in Nike ads and volleyball games, on magazine covers and MTV. But none of those outlets have let people know who Gaby Reece is.

Lifetime changes that with its intimate look at the 6-foot-3 pro volleyball player who moonlights as a model and television personality, and has lived a life of ups and downs.

Reece is proof of the positive impact sports can have on young women and girls. Reece grew up in an unstable environment and sports gave her not only direction, but confidence in herself.

Volleyball provided a college scholarship, and her beauty allowed Reece to return that scholarship and pay for her education with the money she made modeling. Always, however, volleyball came first.

But Reece chose to mingle modeling and television work with her athletic career. And largely because of her, the typical model moved away from the emaciated waif to the healthy, strong athlete-type.

Reece is believable in this hourlong special and as she speaks, the contrasts in her life come clear. She also talks about the lack of opportunities women have to participate in sports, and how sports add to the dimensions of a person. And, she says, thanks to her career she finally has found stability in her personal life.

By the end, you see that this is the kind of woman little girls should look up to.