Beach Volleyball in the Rain

(ATR) Beach weather is not a prerequisite for beach volleyball. The sun never made an appearance during a downpour that soaked the women's Olympic final Thursday.

Still, spectators draped in ponchos filled nearly every seat in the 12,200-seat Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground. The loudspeaker blared the Pointer Sister's "It's Raining Men" and Rihanna's "Umbrella," and other wet and wild music as the constant rain failed to dampen any spirits.

"I think this is just another reason why we play in bathing suits," U.S. gold medalist Misty May-Treanor observed. "I think it's harder being a fan sitting out in the rain than a player."

Sun-drenched or rain-drenched, the show must go on.

And beach volleyball is definitely a show. May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh's victory over China's Wang Jie and Tian Jia was the main event, but it competed for attention with music, bikini-clad dancers and even a break-dancing public address announcer from the AVP Tour who flopped across the sand like a centipede.

"We have such great entertainers working with us to get the crowd involved in the match," veteran player Sinjin Smith, president of the FIVB World Beach Volleyball Council, emphasized to Around the Rings.

"We want them to interact, to keep their energy high. And that helps the game."

The presentation at beach volleyball events is so polished that an Argentine player said you could forget you were in China. The vibe looked and sounded like a tournament in San Diego, except for the constant chants of "jiayou!" the Chinese version of "Let's go!"

Smith added that the special disc jockey knows which songs to use to fire the crowd up.

"It's something we've been doing for several years on the world tour," Smith remarked. "It's not like we're experimenting. We know it works. "

During Thursday's showers, some members of the crowd clapped thunder sticks to cheer on the players. Thankfully there was no lightning, which allowed the players to perform in a safe, but wet, environment.

"The rain is not the ideal condition to play under," Smith admitted, "but it was great, exciting volleyball and the crowd loved it, too.

"I think people would have been disappointed if we didn't play. They're here to watch. They bought their ticket. When does the rain stop? We don't know. So the players can play. It's not dangerous for them. The sand is of the quality that the water goes through. The sand still moves around."

The rain eventually took a backseat to the reign of May-Treanor and Walsh. The most dominant women's team in the world, they defended their Olympic title. They haven't lost since Aug. 19, 2007, and have now won 108 straight matches.

The rain was initially considered an equalizer between the U.S. team and the Chinese. It makes the ball heavier and has to be wiped off between points. It also makes the sand clumpy and harder, which was thought to favor the Chinese.

But May-Treanor and Walsh needed just 42 minutes to storm to a 21-18, 21-18 victory. China captured the bronze medal which marked its first two beach volleyball Olympic medals.

Zhang Xi, who won the bronze with Chinese teammate Xue Chen, stated the rain affected her performance. "I couldn't really stretch out my body in the rain and I didn't feel comfortable, especially with my back injury."

The U.S. team, however, had no trouble spiking in the rain.

"This is the steadiest, hardest rain we've ever played in," Walsh stated.

Her partner added that most rainstorms sprinkle and stop, and aren't continuous like this one.

"Definitely, you don't want to look up too much," May-Treanor explained. "Otherwise, you lose the ball because rain's dropping in your eyes. It makes it fun."

Fun is what beach volleyball is all about. The sport started on Southern California beaches and quickly earned acceptance in the international sporting community. It joined the Olympic program in 1996 in Atlanta, where it was played on a specially-constructed "beach" in land-locked Jonesboro, Ga. Chaoyang Park is also land-locked.

The 2000 Olympic competition was held at famed Bondi Beach while the 2004 event was in Faliro, Greece.

"Now we know that you can play beach volleyball off the beach," Smith recalled. "Our World Championships last year was in Gstaad, Switzerland, in the mountains, and it was an absolutely incredible event with 10,000 people coming throughout.

Smith also added that the Chaoyang facility will stay, along with the training courts, so the Chinese can use it for clinics, development and tournaments.

"After each Olympic Games, there seems to be a big surge in the sport worldwide," he stated. "Our sport is the kind of sport that small countries can even get involved: Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, countries that you think, 'Do they even have beaches? The weather's too cold there."

"We don't need to be at a beach to create the beach volleyball atmosphere, create that ambiance. You can see that we've done that here. We have beautiful sand, some of the best sand you're ever going to see in the world."

The sand came from a Chinese island where it was dug up and cleaned before being transported to Beijing.

Mariano Baracetti of Argentina, who is playing in his third Olympics, said the sand was just right.

"In Athens, the sand was very, very deep; very nice, but very difficult to play on for all of us," he told ATR. "So this is the right level. You can jump also."

Baracetti observed that the venue also doesn't have the wind that plagues some matches on the beach. The weather is supposed to be better for the men's medal round Friday.

After the semifinals, May-Treanor sprinkled some of her mother's ashes on the court. Earlier in the tournament, Walsh had lost her wedding ring and volunteers combed the court until they found it.

Written by ATR Staff in Beijing.