Misti May-Treanor, Kerri Walsh Take on Male Beach Legends

On Thursday, the world's No. 1 women's team was joined on the practice court by Karch Kiraly, 1996 Olympic gold medalist, and Mike Dodd, 1996 Olympic silver medalist. May-Treanor and Walsh are always looking for challenging training partners, so Kiraly and Dodd gave it a go.

"We never have (teamed up before)," Dodd said about his partnership with Kiraly. "But we have the last two days here, and we'd be a pretty formidable women's team, I think."

May-Treanor and Walsh are in the midst of a 101-match, 18-tournament winning streak, so stiff competition is hard to come by.

"We're not only a good practice team -- by women's standards -- we're as good a team as they're going to play because we can cover a lot of court. And make them work that much harder," Dodd said.

Unlike a sport like wrestling, where the athletes are allowed to bring a partner specifically for training partners, beach volleyball players commonly try to schedule workouts with fellow competitors. The 48 total teams in Beijing are split up into 12 pools (24 teams and six pools per gender), so they'll generally scrimmage a team they won't face in the preliminary rounds.

Dodd, 50, is in Beijing as the coach of the No. 2 U.S. men's team of Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal, while Kiraly, 47, is a commentator for NBC. They appeared to get a little more winded than May-Treanor and Walsh during the one-hour session, but did offer the women a challenge.

"Karch probably can (hit harder than they're used)," Dodd said. "My shoulder's not so good. I'm probably hitting maybe as good as a woman, or maybe a little less. But good enough -- high enough angles and shots. My blocking and defense are better than a woman's."

Thursday was the third straight day of practice for May-Treanor and Walsh, but the first for the other three U.S. beach volleyball teams in Beijing.

The first match for May-Treanor and Walsh is Sunday morning at 9 a.m.

Source:  NBC Olympics