(UPDATES with quotes)
Defending champions Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor won Olympic gold in women's beach volleyball on Wednesday, beating fellow Americans Jennifer Kessy and April Ross in the final.
It was an unprecedented third-straight Olympic beach volleyball gold for Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor, who danced on the sand in celebration at Horse Guard's Parade after winning match point.
"It means the world," said May-Treanor. "We set our expectations really high as a team, as people and as players. We want this game to grow and we set the bar very high and we extended that bar and set it even higher."
It was a last competitive appearance for May-Treanor, who at 35 is retiring to start a family.
Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor made up for their slower serves with a calmer defense and a more pointed attack than their rivals, who took silver on their Olympic debut.
Silver medalist Kessy said her team hadn't lost through want of trying.
"We battled, we battled and we battled and that got us this far, but they played unbelievably well and were hard to stop. But I am really proud," she said.
The final score was 21-16, 21-16.
Earlier in the day, Brazil’s duo of Larissa Franca and Juliana Silva won Olympic bronze, beating China’s Xue Chen and Zhang Xi in a three-set thriller.
Franca and Silva, the reigning Olympic champions, battled back from a first-set thrashing to scrape a 2-1 win.
