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August 9, 2004
Misty
is rested & ready
For the competition. She hopped on a plane today headed for
Athens, Greece, and the Olympic Games appointment she and Kerri Walsh
made more than a year ago. The stomach muscle strain that knocked
her out of a few tournaments in June and July has "I don't even feel it," the
two-time NCAA player of the year at Long Beach State said. "I
finished my therapy a little while ago and I've just been focused on my
regular exercise." It's a statement on May's stature in the
sport that the hubbub over her injury made it the most serious abdominal
strain of 2004. Coming as it did a few weeks before the Games,
speculation went into overdrive, especially when she pulled out of the
AVP Hermosa Beach final 20 minutes before it was to begin. Even though she said it was
precautionary, it didn't stop skeptics and those paid for their opinions
to start their mouths. On NBC's Olympic Web site on Sunday, veteran
men's beach volleyball star Mike Dodd wrote that Walsh would be better
off with a healthy Annett Davis than a questionable Misty May. Needless to say, that kind of comment
only makes May dig her heels in harder, and this is an athlete who
doesn't need any extra motivation. "It's made me so serious that I want
to take it out on everyone else," she said via cell. "Most
everything that came out (about the injury) was wrong. People were
saying things that were wrong or talking about my condition without
knowing what it was." That included speculation the decision on
replacing May was in the hands of anyone other than Misty herself, and
some star-crossed Olympic assumptions about injuries since she played
through a shoulder injury in the Sydney Olympics four years ago. "Right now, I'm very
confident," she said. "I'm hitting hard and fast. I'm in shape
and ready to go. "I really don't think the injury set
us back. I haven't been out that long, and I feel great now. Kerri kept
playing to stay in shape, and we had a good week and will have more
practice (in Athens)." The shoulder injury in Sydney four years
ago came late in the qualification process, to the degree that May had
to serve underhand in the tournament that clinched their Olympic berth.
She wasn't 100 percent in Sydney, with a loss of power and flexibility
in the shoulder, but was still good enough to finish fifth. "Sydney was a lot worse than
this," she sad. "I'm hitting my jump serves, diving for balls,
hitting hard on spikes. I didn't have any time off four years ago. We
went right to the Games. I've had the time to rehab and get healthy and
get into shape. "I'm ready. I see targets on
everyone's head." If not for the injury, there would be no
bigger buildup for an American Olympian than that for May and Walsh not
even for uberswimmer Michael Phelps. They went on a winning streak in
the middle of 2003 and weren't beaten until June, an 11-month run while
playing against the best on the domestic AVP tour Holly McPeak-Elaine
Youngs and Annett Davis-Jenny Johnson Jordan as well as the best of
Brazil, Australia and China in the FIVB Tour. How much buzz would there be if they had
stayed unbeaten and healthy headed into Athens? As it is, they haven't
lost in more than a year to any of the other top teams that will be in
Athens. That includes McPeak-Youngs, who are on a
run of their own the last three months and are solid medal candidates.
When May scratched from the Hermosa final, McPeak admitted they were
looking forward to the showdown since they had yet to beat their U.S.
rivals. The buzz would have been even greater,
too, since Walsh has emerged as a superstar in her own right in the
process. The lithe 6-3 Walsh began her beach
venture slowly, all shy and deferential. Now armed with success and
confidence, she's fast becoming the standard for the next generation of
beach player, taller and versatile. The May-Walsh team was unbeatable for 11
months because they had no weaknesses. Walsh is an amazon at the net and
May has the kind of court savvy you wouldn't notice unless you played
the game. She makes the game look easy because she's always in the right
place. The other key component is their
versatility. Aside from setting plays up, May can kill with the best of
them and will go face-first into the sand to reach a ball. Walsh, who
played in the 2000 Olympics on the U.S. women's indoor team, has broken
any one-dimensional limits on her game and now plays with the face-first
fearlessness of the best-known veteran men in the game. Walsh's only weakness was getting a bit
caught up emotionally in all of the media queries about May's condition
and its impact for the Olympics. "The media can get to you," May
said. "Things can get blown out of proportion even with a little
piece of misinformation. We're fine. We worked real hard this
week." Olympic beach volleyball competition
starts Saturday, and the 24 teams will play in pools before advancing to
later rounds. It is a double-elimination tourney this year. There are no
weak teams in the field, but two of the top-ranked teams are fighting
injuries a lot more severe than a strained stomach. "The competition will be
tough," May said. "The team that will win is the team with the
most heart." Which, by most standards, has always been
more important than the stomach. |
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The
news on Misty May is all bad.