Golden Girls Twice Over: Misty and Kerri Take Gold

"You have bags under your eyes," my mother politely informed me last night, looking grave and concerned.

"It's the Olympics," I replied matter-of-factly, because it's a well-known fact that I get little-to-no sleep during the Olympics. A moment, and suddenly my mother began to chuckle, because what else can you say to that?

"Maybe you should try to go to sleep earlier tonight," she said helpfully.

"Can't," I said immediately, shaking my head in a somber no. "Misty and Kerri are playing for the Gold tonight."

"Oh," she said, and waved her hand in my direction, giving up. "I get it."

Of course she does.

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh proved they were insurmountable when they won the Gold medal in two sets against China, in a packed but wet stadium in Beijing. The match was a nailbiter- the Chinese are GOOD, and had shut out the always dependable Brazilians and the medal hungry Americans Elaine Youngs and Natalie Branagh from medal contention on their home turf. The sudden downpour of rain (3 inches that day) did not help with wet balls and slippery fingers, and the matches were hard won. But Misty May and Kerri Walsh, who have dropped no sets in this year, dug in and played hard, and the result? Their long-awaited gold medal, which has been their goal since winning the first in Athens four years ago.

These girls have been my heroes. I've follwed them on the AVP tour, I even ran a website about them for a while (RL committments forced me to give that up), but my giddiness could not be contained when at midnight last night, I was squishing my poor chihuahua and jumping around the room, celebrating with the Golden Girls as they went on a hugging spree after their win, hugging fans and husbands and cheerleaders alike.

And proving that the other women's Olympic teams are no slackers, USA's indoor volleyball beat the team who had beaten them in the tournament, CUBA, to advance to the gold medal match againts Brazil, and USA's Women's Soccer team also took Gold, beating their old rivals Brazil. The US Softball team and Water Polo team lost in an upset in their gold medal games against Japan and the Netherlands, but Silver ain't nothing to snigger at.

Congratulations, girls! You're truly made of legend.