Life’s a beach at midnight
They finally lost a set.
Hey, it’s big news when you’re talking about Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor in beach volleyball.
The two-time defending gold-medal champions, under a light rain and with bells chiming in the background to sound midnight, finished pool play at the 2012 Games with a 17-12, 21-8, 15-10 victory against sisters Doris and Stefanie Schwaiger of Austria.
The American duo had won 34 straight sets in Olympic competition before Wednesday, which turned into Thursday as the match finished. “It pissed me off that we lost a set,” May-Treanor said. “We came out flat and they came out attacking us and we didn’t defend them very much. They kept us on our toes and we weren’t playing fundamentally good volleyball. We had no flow, no rhythm.
“But we fought back and were able to step up in the last two sets.”
Visitors to the match included U.S. basketball players Kevin Durant, James Harden and Carmelo Anthony.
I will have a column in the Review-Journal on Friday about May-Treanor/Walsh and the venue in which they’re chasing another gold medal, set in the shadow of Buckingham Palace and inside the gates used by Queen Elizabeth II.
It is something to behold for history buffs like May-Treanor and all others here.
(Ed Graney is covering the Olympics in London for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney. More Olympics coverage can be found at lvrj.com/olympics.)