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During rehearsals for week three,
however, May-Treanor hopped back from
her partner, heard a pop and, as she puts it,
“felt like somebodyhadhitme frombehind
with a baseball bat.” Themisstep ruptured
her Achilles tendon, leaving her sidelined
with crutches and a cast that stretched up
to her knee. The injury took her out of the
show, obviously, but worse, it threatened
to end her career as a beach volleyball
superstar. Considering that she had
hoped to go for her third Gold
Medal at the London 2012
Olympic Games, inwhat
would probably be her
final bid for glory,
it was all the more
heartbreaking.
M a y - T r e a n o r ,
34 and photogenic
enough to have been
tapped for gues t
spots on “CSI: Miami”
and “Wizards of Waverly
Place,”made themost of her
misfortune.While recuperating,
she got a master’s degree in coaching
and athletic administration, and spent
more quality time with her husband
of nearly eight years, Matt Treanor, a
catcher for the
Los Angeles Dodgers.
Meanwhile, her partner
Walsh also seemed to be mov-
ing away from the sport. With two
gold medals and nothing left to prove,
Walsh had a second baby while May-
Treanor was hi ing the books.
Settling into a quiet life may have
made sense immediately a er the injury,
but the plan didn’t stick for long.
May-Treanor got restless. On
the mend, she played a
bit in 2010 with Big Ten
college divisionPlayer
of the Year Nicole
Branagh at her side,
a partnership that
didn’t quite take.
A year later, Walsh
also began plotting
her return, wi th,
ironically, Branagh
as her partner. But
before that went very far,
May-Treanor invited Walsh to
lunch. Over the course of the meal,
the pair decided to try playing together
again. Walsh jettisoned Branagh, and
training began in earnest.
May-Treanor and Walsh went public
with their reunion at a small tournament
in Brazil last year. Though the teammates
lost in the finals to a hometown twosome,
that was beside the point. “We played at
a high level and came back,” says May-
Treanor. “We realized that we could still
do it and we saw that we still enjoyed it.
The passion is still there for us.”
WOMEN’S BEACH VOLLEYBALL
is a fre-
quently misunderstood sport. Because it
usually takes place onapicturesque ocean-
front and its athletes are barefoot and in
bikinis, some write it off as little more
than California flakiness pushed through
a sporting spectrum. That’s a sore point for
May-Treanor. “People think we just show
up and play,” she says. “They don’t realize
that we train as hard as other athletes.”
She andWalshwork out together every
day. Theytrainwith individual coaches four
or five times a week, and push themselves
with a phalanx of physical trainers and
BEATING ’EM
ONTHEBEACH
Misty May-Treanor’s tips for
making the most of your
volleyball games this summer
BE THE
BACKBOARD:
“Passing is all about foot
movement and not about
swinging your arms. Keep your
arms a beach ball’s length from
your body, find the angle and let
the ball bounce off your arms
without swinging them.
You want to be a human
backboard.”
HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES FOR USOC
culture
||
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