Word: beaches
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...finally made it to beach volleyball. Many of my male journalist friends had been studiously covering the sport in Beijing. One of these colleagues even caught a cold from his assiduous following of the rainy women's final between the red bikinis - a.k.a. China - and the white bikinis - a.k.a. the U.S. (The lighter-hued bikinis prevailed.) Friday was gloriously sunny, so I figured it would be a good time to check out the vibe at the men's gold-medal match between Brazil and the U.S. Sure enough, the radio reporter in front of me was broadcasting shirtless. (In case...
...many fans come to beach volleyball for the Carnival-like atmosphere. And at Carnival, clothing tends to be an optional accoutrement. Beach volleyball's female athletes oblige by wearing as little as the cheerleaders. Yes, that means sand - particularly on a rainy day like the Aug. 21 women's final - can sneak its way into uncomfortable places. But the dress code of the athletes helps define the overall ambience. At the table tennis, for instance, the athletes tend to wear shapeless shirts with shorts of a distressingly outdated fashion. Is it any surprise that table-tennis is not a sport...
...think that if the women are dressed like they're about to sun-bathe during Olympic competition, the men should be, too. At the very least, uniform parity would mean that the athletes' sun-block bills would be more equitable. And given that one of the places where beach volleyball first gained popularity in the 1920s was a French nudist colony (Franconville, a northwestern suburb of Paris, in case you're wondering) a briefer male costume would also have historical resonance...
...decision that female beach volleyball players should don abbreviated swimwear, while the men can wear mid-thigh trunks and a loose tank top, comes from the sport's international governing body, the FIVB. In fact, the regulations specify the maximum amount of a female athlete's rear end that can be covered by her swimsuit. But male sand-spikers decked out like they're about to take on Kobe and LeBron in a little two-on-two? That's completely fine. Maybe I should have stayed away from beach volleyball altogether. I'm still stumped by the sartorial rules...
...triumphant day for U.S. women's sports at the Olympics, it's downright cruel that softball, the Teflon team that was set for one last coronation, fell short. The rainy morning started with a win on wet sand, as Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor clinched gold in beach volleyball, keeping their ludicrous 108-game winning streak safe. Later, the U.S. women's soccer team, which played the tournament without its best player, Abby Wambach, shocked Brazil in the gold medal game, a 1-0 overtime thriller. Brazil had spanked the U.S., 4-0, at last year's World...