A Beach Volleyball Three-peat

Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor have proved that they may be the best Olympic beach volleyball duo to ever compete.

There ability to perform at their best on the Olympic stage is nothing but impressive. They have not one, not two, but three gold medals to prove it.

May-Treanor competed in the beach volleyball event at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Walsh Jennings was a member of the indoor volleyball team. They teamed up shortly after and competed in their first Olympics together in 2004 in Athens. They won gold.

The following Olympics in Beijing they proved their dominance of the sport. They were seeded #2 in the tournament (with home team China seeded first). They went on to win gold then as well.

The two took a break from their partnership in the four years separating the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. May-Treanor went on to perform on ABC’s television show Dancing with the Stars, where she tore her Achilles tendon. Walsh Jennings used that time to begin her family and gave birth to her two sons.

The pair decided to join back together for one last Olympic hurrah and perform in what would be their final Olympics in London.

And I’m so glad they did. I don’t know what the Olympics will be like without being able to watch these two women compete together. They make up one of the greatest teams ever.

The two have their strengths and weaknesses, as all athletes do, but they compliment each other in such a way that every time they walk out onto the sand they are expected to be victorious.

Together they hold an impressive Olympic record. They went 32 consecutive matches without a set loss. They lost their first set against the Schwaiger sisters from Austria in the preliminary round of the London Olympics. But that loss did not prevent them from having gone undefeated in matches during their time in the Olympics.

The gold medal match for the London games was an exciting match for the Americans. It was the two American women’s duos up against each other. And whether you were rooting for the underdog in first time Olympians Jennifer Kessey and April Ross or the veterans May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings, the Americans were going to get gold and silver. 

In a very interesting pre-game fact, Kessey and Ross had defeated Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor in competition in 2008 and it was now time to see if they could do it again. Unfortunately they could not, as they went point for point in the first set and then Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor commanded the second set to win the gold.

Beach volleyball will never be the same without Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor there to compete. They will be definitely be missed. But I look forward to what Kessey and Ross can do in the future, especially in the 2016 Rio Olympic games.