Well, kids, it’s over. I didn’t want it to happen, and at times didn’t believe it would happen, but it has. The Olympics are gone for two years (or four, depending on your perspective). The good news for Long Beach? Our local athletes finished the Olympics on a pretty strong note, with the Indoor Men’s Volleyball team (and its three LBSU grads) taking a gold from Brazil, and the Men’s Water Polo team (expected to finish somewhere between 6th and 8th place) brought home the silver. More on that in a second, but let me just lay that all out for you. We sent 15 athletes to the Olympics, on five teams (plus one marathoner!). All five of those teams went to the gold medal match! That’s preposterous.
Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh brought home gold, and the US Women’s Water Polo team took silver, as did the Women’s Indoor Volleyball team–you can read about their victories below. The Men’s Water Polo team, which has five players who graduated from Wilson or Millikan (including star player Tony Azevedo), took home silver after a gold medal match loss to defending world champion Hungary, who take home their third consecutive gold. The team was disappointed to lose its last game, but that doesn’t at all diminish the accomplishment of winning the silver, especially given the world’s low expectations for this team and the fact that the US Men hadn’t won a medal since 1988. “For us this is an amazing accomplishment,” said Azevedo. “In 2001 we were in 11th place and nobody quit, we stuck together and our only goal as been to get back to the podium and that was accomplished with all of us playing as a team.” Azevedo had four goals in the gold medal match, and was a standout throughout the tournament.
The Indoor Men’s Volleyball team went from tragedy to triumph over the course of an emotional tournament. After the brutal murder of Head Coach McCuthcheon’s father-in-law, the coach missed the first few games. His team showed up in force, though, winning every game they played, finishing at 8-0 to give the US Men their first gold in twenty years after a dominating performance over the Brazilians, who they weren’t expected to beat. LBSU grads Scott Touzinsky, captain Tom Hoff, and David Lee all had good tournaments, with Lee being the Olympics’ top blocker. Congratulations to these 49ers, who finally found gold.
So let’s make a promise to these athletes, and to ourselves. Let’s remember this summer, when we sent over a dozen athletes to the Olympics, and they performed so admirably. Let’s never forget the summer that Long Beach took on the world, and won.
Long Beach teams’ record: 29-5-1
Medal count: 2 golds, 3 silvers