A Golden Day at the Beach

BEIJING, Aug. 21 -- The sand underneath them was clumped together and soaked, and it didn't matter. When Kerri Walsh hit the final ball over the net Thursday morning at the Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Grounds, and it fell between the rain drops and to the ground, she turned to find her partner, Misty May-Treanor. There, in the rain on the beach, the two women kneeled and hugged, rolling around in the sand like 5-year-olds who didn't mind that the weather for their end-of-summer party turned pitiful.

Walsh and May-Treanor won their second straight gold medal in women's beach volleyball Thursday, a 21-18, 21-18 victory over the Chinese duo of Tian Jia and Wang Jie, a team clad in red bikinis to represent the host nation, one that all but bowed down to the women they consider the best to ever play the sport.

"They're just too strong," Tian said. "They're too competitive."

May-Treanor and Walsh were not the top seed in the tournament. That honor belonged, instead, to Tian and Wang, who have helped establish a sport that is in its nascent stages of development in China. "For us, we need to catch up," said Tian, who is 27 and in her third Olympics, partnered with the 24-year-old Wang, making her debut.

"It's a very big day for Misty and I," said the 30-year-old Walsh, her eyes still watering as she sat next to May-Treanor, 31, an hour after the match. "We're old ladies compared to them."

Aging or not, the Americans' résumé is indisputable. Not only did they win gold four years ago in Athens, but they now have 69 straight international victories, 108 consecutive wins overall. Their most recent loss came last fall in Boston, and they did not lose a set during their seven-match romp through the Olympic tournament.

They also have an opportunity to become something of the counterculture American heroines in these Olympics. Though swimmer Natalie Coughlin won six medals here, she did so quietly, in the shadow of countryman Michael Phelps, who took a record eight golds. Dara Torres, a 41-year-old in her fifth Games, swam her way to three silvers, but did not win a race.

And NBC, which owns the broadcast rights to the pro beach volleyball circuit in the United States, helped schedule these matches for the morning here, making them available for live broadcast at night back in the United States. Thus, May-Treanor and Walsh -- along with their male counterparts, Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser, who will play for gold Friday -- have been covered extensively.

They had not, however, been pushed like they were Thursday, nor had they faced such conditions. The skies over Beijing were dark, and not because of smog. Steady showers pelted the crowd, clad in an array of washed-out pastel ponchos, umbrellas up. Nothing, though, could shield the beer commercial of a scene that provides the backdrop for beach volleyball.

Rain? It didn't send the bikini-clad cheerleaders running for cover. It didn't deter the public address announcer from screaming, "Let's make some noise!" Nor did it keep an endless stream of messages from blinking on the scoreboards, "Nice!!" followed by "Spike!!!" followed by "Cheer!", an arbitrary number of exclamation points placed after each observation or instruction, enthusiasm breaking through the clouds.

"I don't know if Kerri and I have played into a constant rain," May-Treanor said. "There's been sprinkles, and then it would stop. . . . It makes it fun. I think it's harder being a fan than a player in the rain. This is just another reason why we play in bathing suits."

Walsh and May-Treanor are impervious to all this, because it is how they make a living. Though they cruised into the final -- never needing more than 41 minutes to complete a match and thumping the Brazilian team of Talita Antunes and Renata Ribeiro in the semifinals, 21-12, 21-14 -- the Chinese pushed them hard from the start. The first set featured 12 ties, the last at 17-17, and no lead of more than three points.

"We knew that China was going for it in the Olympic Games," May-Treanor said. "Just to see how far they've come is amazing."

The Americans closed that out, though, with a huge spike from May-Treanor, and Walsh shot both arms toward the dark gray sky. May-Treanor and Walsh began the second set with three straight points, and though the Chinese came back to take a 9-8 lead, the Americans never seemed to lack control. When the Chinese tied it at 18-18, May-Treanor and Walsh finished with the final three points.

"I'm sorry for yelling so loud," Walsh said later. "I had to get it out of me."

In the medal ceremony afterward, Wang and Tian congratulated their countrywomen, Xue Chen and Zhang Xi, who beat the Brazilians for bronze. The host country had two medals in beach volleyball, their first ever in the sport.

And when it came time to award the Americans their medals, Walsh jumped giddily behind the medal stand, clutching May-Treanor by the hand. "I feel like it's a dream," May-Treanor said. The two climbed the podium, sang loudly, and when they yelled out, "the home of the brave," shot their arms to the sky once more. The rain mattered not one bit.