WOMEN’S BEACH VOLLEYBALL
LONDON OLYMPICS PREVIEW
Golden Girls III
Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor face their toughest battle yet as they attempt to secure a record third-straight Olympic gold medal
by Jon Hastings
N
BC began airing a 20-second promo 60 days out from London in which Kerri Walsh proclaims she wants to accomplish something that would be a fi rst in Olympic beach volleyball. “We want to do something that has never been done before,” she says.
That something would be a third consecu- tive Olympic gold medal with partner Misty May-Treanor. It should be pointed out that Walsh and May-Treanor have already done a number of things that have never been done before, including win back-to-back Olympic beach gold medals and a record 102 tourna- ment victories as a team since forming a partnership in 2001 that has garnered them worldwide fame. Walsh has always thought in the context of more is better. This time it’s another coat of
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gold tint to the legacy of the duo that embod- ies the sport to the general public. “Who is Misty” or “Who is Kerri” would be safe answers to any question that deals with vol- leyball on Jeopardy. Which May-Treanor and Walsh team the public will see in London is the question that is not so easily answered and would make for a precarious Daily Double wager. In the past two Olympics in Athens and Beijing, their success was a foregone conclusion. The numbers are staggering – 14-0 in matches and 28-0 in sets played during the supposed rigors of Olympic competition. Their smiles were pressed into overtime, but not much else during the two previous appearances on the sport’s biggest stage.
Even the majority of Misty’s hundreds of Facebook friends could not argue that the
landscape has changed since 2004. MySpace was still a more popular mode of communi- cation than Twitter when the pair won their fi rst gold. May-Treanor, 34, and Walsh, 33, are not physically as dominant as they were in the previous two Olympics. The 6-2 Walsh now looks eye-to-eye to a majority of the blockers she will be pitted against in London. The mental edge they once had over the rest of the fi eld has been reduced if not radically compromised. They are not eliminating teams in introductions any longer, but instead are slugging it out in three-set matches even dur- ing pool play and early elimination rounds. Since their victory in Beijing over China’s
Jia Tian and Jie Wang 48 months ago, Walsh has had two kids, two shoulder surgeries and her picture on a box of Wheaties. May-Tre- anor has retired, had her Achilles tendon
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