American Volleyballers are the Belles of the Beach
Misty May-Treanor (in red) and Kerri Walsh by Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images
Life's not a beach for anyone on the other side of the net from
Misty May-Treanor and
Kerri Walsh. The bikini-clad Americans arrived in Beijing having won a record 18 beach-volleyball tournaments and 101 matches in a row, and are trying to become the first duo to repeat as Olympic champions on the sand. "They have this knack of hitting their best volleyball when it counts most and the pressure's biggest," says NBC analyst
Karch Kiraly, a three-time Olympic gold medalist (twice in indoor volleyball, once on the beach). "And even their worst is better than anyone else's best." Walsh uses her 6-foot-2 inch height to block shots and Kiraly calls May-Treanor "the best defensive player in the world."
They begin their quest for another gold Sunday morning against Japan's Mika Teru Saiki and Chiaki Kusuhara (airing live in the U.S. on Saturday evening, Aug. 9, 8 pm/ET, NBC). As the competition progresses, U.S. teammates Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs, the last pair to beat them, and China's Jia Tian and Jie Wang, ranked No. 2 in the world, will try to serve up an upset. "Nobody can figure out how to take that team down," Kiraly says. "They're just going out there and crushing everybody."
- Karen Rosen
