The Official Site of Misty May

Thu, Aug 21st 2008, 11:04

For US Women, life's a beach

Karch Kiraly once set the volleyball bar so high that no one has been able to clear it, winning three Olympic gold medals, two in indoor and one in beach.

Now he has seen Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor set the bar so high, in slightly different fashion, that perhaps no one else will clear it.

“I don’t think I will ever see something like this in my lifetime,” Kiraly said after Walsh and May-Treanor made history Thursday by becoming the first beach volleyball team, male or female, to repeat as Olympic champions.

It’s not just the two gold medals that set Walsh, 30, of Hermosa Beach, Calif., and May-Treanor, 31, of Long Beach, Calif., apart. It’s the 108 consecutive match victories. Including the Olympics, they have won 19 consecutive tournaments. And the stat that raises the hair on Kiraly’s arms? They played 28 sets in two Olympiads — and won 28 sets.