ShareThisBEIJING -- While some guy named Phelps was making Olympic history Sunday, just a few miles down the road a couple of California girls were playing in the sand.But Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor don't expect a Phelps-like spotlight.They play beach volleyball.After the American women dusted off the tough Brazilian team of Ana Paula Conelly and Larissa Franca 21-18, 21-15 in the quarterfinals, they were asked two questions at their press conference.How many do think Michael Phelps was asked - 200? The good thing about covering beach volleyball - aside from the scenery - is the casualness. I showed up in a t-shirt and flip flops and fit right in.And while Phelps was over at the Cube winning an eighth gold medal, Kerri and Misty were in the sand winning their 106th straight match.Yep, you read right - 106.That's 50 more than DiMaggio - and 88 more than the 2007 Patriots.When Kerri and Misty play their semifinal match on Tuesday, it will be one year to the day since they last lost - that coming in Boston against fellow Americans Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs.Athletes like to talk about being in a zone.Well, Kerri and Misty have created a whole new zone."We are just so focused. We want to defend our gold medal, and each team is just one more step we have to climb to get to that podium," said Misty, the 31-year-old wife of Florida Marlins catcher Matt Treanor."Whatever we have when we play, we feel like we are in it (zone) a lot. We feel like we're jelling. We're calm and we're confident. I guess that's our zone," added Kerri, who celebrated her 30th birthday here Friday.The partnership began in 2001 and since then the two friends have won 22 world tour titles, three world championships and one gold medal playing in 13 different countries.On Sunday, they made a 41-minute sweep of the Brazilians look so easy.And it was anything but easy.If Americans weren't here, Conelly and Franca would win the gold. They are two of the best players in the world but are paired together here for the first time and don't have the chemistry that Kerri and Misty have.The American ladies only want 1/8 of the gold medals that Phelps has accumulated in these Olympics."Watching him swim his gold medal feat the other night, I took that in with me in this game today. He came in so hard and was giving nothing for granted," Kerri said. "He works his butt off, and I respect so much the heart and soul in that guy.""It is fabulous what he has done," Misty added. "He is such a competitor with the drive that he has. You get goose bumps thinking about somebody who wants something so bad, and you know he wanted it. All the work and the tears and the sweat that he has put into this, to see him succeed the way he has is incredible."Kerri and Misty don't have the fame of a Phelps, but they were signing autographs around here the other day."People have just been really kind to us, and to have people embrace me that day was just wonderful," Kerri said. "We have fun out there, and I think people kind of gravitate toward us "But I'm 6-2 and blonde. I don't know if there are a lot of us over here."Nick Gholson writes for the Wichita Falls Times Record News in Wichita Falls, Texas. E-mail him at gholsonn(at)timesrecordnews.com(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
Walsh, May-Treanor: an unbeatable combination
Submitted by SHNS on Sun, 08/17/2008 - 08:36
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