The sands of Beijing

(at right Team Norway)
I love the Olympics. The true patriotic competition, the huge assortment of sports I don’t usually get to see and those sweet little extras... like beach volley ball. Now before you start leaving me messages with words like chauvinist, misogynist or even ...pig!!! Allow me to explain my particular point of view.
I like volley ball, I played varsity volley ball, so obviously I watch it. When beach volleyball began well it was quite natural to watch that too. It takes exceptional ball control and handling abilities to play in the sand plus at 2 vs 2 it becomes a virtual chess game. And of course one of the big attraction is the women athletes. I mean, toned women in skimpy bikinis jumping, running and diving all over the place as their tanned body glisten under the sun’s rays!
Hello!!!
And thus began my search, once again, to find someone, somewhere, upon the vast electronic highway we call the Internet, who would share my point of view. Hark! But not in silence, this shall not do. No, I needed someone to come forth strongly, not to bury thy fine sports deep into the sand that cushion their feet but to praise it. Praise it as the visual utopia it has become in light of these Olympic games. And fruitfully I found that person. I found her opinion as a matter of fact. Yes, Ashley Harris summed a response well written to silence the most objectionable fanatics of this beautiful sport. Tis’ well worth the time to read and understand my friends.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/beijingolympics/archive/2008/08/22/in-defense-of-the-volleyball-bikini.aspx/archive/2008/08/22/in-defense-of-the-volleyball-bikini.aspx


Team USA Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh

Canada's Marie-Andrée Lessard

This year, the US team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh won gold by defeating the host Chinese team of Jia Tian and Jie Wang in two sets. Ironically, it rained throughout the match. The bronze-medal match featured the Chinese team of Chen Xue and Xi Zhang who also defeated Brazil’s Renata Ribeiro and Talita Antunes in straight sets.
Unfortunately Canada did not make it to the Olympics this time around but the present teams of Dana Cooke \ Annie Martin and Marie-Andrée Lessard \ Sarah Maxwell http://www.mtothemax.ca/ are well worth keeping an eye on for the next few years. http://www.volleyball.ca/index.asp

But really now, how can one not like a sport that celebrates all the athletic abilities of the human body and shows it off too? Beach volley ball even has teams in Sweden and Norway? Now I ask you, with all the crap going on in world news these days who amongst us doesn’t deserve to watch bikini clad women (and strapping male jocks for the ladies) playing a game in the sand on a nice sunny day. We’ve all heard the saying about stopping to smell the roses, eh? Well, suntan lotion and sand smell like roses to me.