Keisser: Misty has to sit this dance out

By Bob Keisser
Staff columnist 

Twenty years of throwing herself on hard gym volleyball courts and various patches of sand on several continents. Twenty years of propelling herself into the air above a 7-foot-4 net so she can rifle her shoulder and arm violently down to spike a ball.

Twenty years of grueling workouts to hone herself into the best volleyball player in the world and take on the best Brazil and China have to offer.

And Misty May-Treanor gets taken down by The Jive.

Imagine how Elaine Youngs, Renata Ribeiro, Jia Tian and other beach volleyball stars must feel, learning only now that the best chance they had of beating May-Treanor in the Olympic Games was to turn up the music and get her on the dance floor.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist and former Long Beach State All-American suffered a torn Achilles tendon in her left ankle Friday during a practice session for the next episode of ABC's "Dancing With The Stars" reality show.

She was working with partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy in the studio on the next dance in the competition - the Jive, your basic high-velocity East Coast Swing - with ABC's cameras running, when she landed hard on her left foot and felt a pop that was loud enough to get picked up by ABC's microphones.

She initially thought she had landed on some stairs near a table in the studio.

"It felt like someone had hit me in the leg with a baseball bat," she said.

Quite typically, her initial reaction was to tape it up and get back to work. But the pain eventually gave way to numbness.

"I felt like there was nothing there," she said. "No ankle, no foot."

May-Treanor appeared on Monday's live show, in a boot and on crutches, to announce her injury and departure from the show, and had successful surgery Tuesday. By the afternoon, she was already home with her family and husband Matt Treanor, the Florida Marlins catcher, and taking phone calls from friends, colleagues and her beach partner Kerri Walsh.

She talked about the injury and the rehabilitation to come as if she had suffered a bothersome hangnail. In the wake of the worst injury of her career, she was looking at the upside.

"I feel fortunate," she said. "I could have suffered an injury before the Olympics. It was just a freak accident."

She didn't find it that ironic, either.

"Dancing is a sport," she said. "It could happen to anyone. You take risks all the time, even when you're crossing the street.

"It won't keep me from playing volleyball again. It won't keep me from dancing. Next time I'm at a wedding or party, I'll get back on the dance floor."

May-Treanor's toughness rivals that of any athlete, male or female.

In 1996, she suffered a partially torn ACL in her left knee in her sophomore year at Long Beach State, yet was back playing within several weeks.

In 2000, she teamed with Holly McPeak for a late run to make the U.S. Olympic team despite suffering a pulled stomach muscle in the last few qualifying matches. The injury was so severe that she was unable to extend her arm as usual for serves and spikes. They still managed to finish fifth in the Olympic tournament at Sydney.

The other "fortunate" aspect to the injury is that she was already planning to skip the 2009 season so she could hopefully start a family and spend more time with her husband. Walsh has the same plans with her husband Casey Jennings.

"I was going to take time off anyway, so I'll have plenty of time to rehab," she said.

"My doctor was happy with the surgery and told me not to worry, that I'll be back."

Her former coach, Brian Gimmillaro, has said many times that he's never seen any player work harder and show more commitment than May-Treanor, so he expects she'll come back from this injury with the same determination and work ethic as usual.

"Misty wants to have a family and then she'll decide what she wants to do with the rest of her career," he said. "If she wants to try for another gold medal, I have no doubt she'll be as prepared as she was for Beijing.

"If she decided she wanted to go back to indoors, she could do so. If she decides she wants to become a coach full-time, she'll prepare to be the best coach there is.

"If she decides she wants to be a full-time dancer, I wouldn't bet against her."

May-Treanor said she does have a goal: To get invited back to a future edition of "Dancing With The Stars."

"If they'll have me," she said.

That's no jive.

bob.keisser@presstelegram.com