I mentioned Misty May-Treanor briefly at the tail end of my article about the proliferation of Long Beach State athletes on the USA Volleyball team, but I’d be remiss in not devoting a full column to her.  After all, she is probably the Long Beach athlete with the greatest chance of bringing home the gold, and is undoubtedly the most famous Long Beachian competing in the 2008 games.  

I assume if you have eyeballs and a television, you’re aware of why that is, but in case you’re not: May-Treanor is a marketing dream.  She’s the most dominating, talented, accomplished player in the world in her sport, she’s bright and funny, has a name that rolls off the tongue (I mean, Misty May? That’s awesome), and looks great in a swimsuit, to boot.  Those of us lucky enough to live in Long Beach were ahead of the curve in noticing her, since she attended Long Beach State, where she led the 49ers to a national championship in 1998, and earned NCAA Athlete of the Year honors as well.  

Since graduating, she has gone on to take over the beach volleyball world, with a list of accomplishments I could probably fill the entire internet with, including every award the AVP gives out.  She and partner Kerri Walsh set a record for consecutive AVP match victories—and then broke it.  Last week she became the second woman to reach 100 tournament victories, a number that’s already growing, after she and Walsh took the title at the AVP tourney in Brooklyn last weekend.  She and Walsh also won a gold in Sidney at the 2004 Olympics, going undefeated there.

The most impressive accomplishment, though, is that she’s helped to significantly expand the audience for her sport.  Last weekend’s victory was televised live on NBC, an expanded audience made possible by a number of athletes, but especially by industry-leading May, who is the second beach volleyball player ever to reach a million dollars in career earnings, according to the AVP.  In fact, she’s so accomplished, so decorated, that one of the questions you see most frequently asked of her by interviewers is, “When is it enough?  What more do you have to accomplish?”

May laughs off the idea, though.  “We’re not satisfied yet,” she says in a video on her official website.  “Kerri and I have a new goal now, to win another gold medal in Beijing.”  She also gives little credence to her reputation as being a dominating player.  “I still have a lot of improving to do,” she says.  “I don’t think I dominate.”  The laundry list of tournament victories speaks volumes to the contrary, of course, and I doubt any of her competitors want to hear that she could still get better.  Said one of her USA Beach Volleyball teammates, Jennifer Boss (who is teamed with April Ross to be the second-best team for Team USA behind May and Walsh), “I’m sick of their winning…We’re ready for anyone else to win at this point.”  Sorry Boss—doesn’t seem likely.  May and Walsh are the odds-on favorite to win their second consecutive gold medal in Beijing.  If they do, they’ll be the first tandem in history to do so.  Check back here at LBPostSports.com for updates on the TV schedule so you can see this 49er chase history one more time.