COMMENTARY

By Steve Wilstein

AP columnist

updated 4:07 p.m. ET Aug. 26, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - Do you believe in angels?

Misty May surely does, now more than ever.

She believes with all her heart that her mother was looking over her at the Olympics, the spirit as real as the vial of ashes she sprinkled on the beach volleyball sand before the gold medal match she won Tuesday night with partner Kerri Walsh against Brazil.

May had scattered some of those ashes on the same sand in tribute to her mother, Barbara, before the semifinal match the day before against fellow Americans and bronze medalists Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs.

“We’re leaving some of her in Greece and we’re bringing the rest to Hawaii. She loved Hawaii,” said May, who has her mother’s initials and angel wings tattooed on her left shoulder.

“You know what’s very weird?” she said. “I didn’t realize it, but there’s an angel on my medal. I think that’s a sign.”

FREE VIDEO May, Walsh win beach volleyball gold Aug 25: U.S. Olympic athletes Misty May and Kerri Walsh talk about being the first American women to win gold in beach volleyball with "Today" host Matt Lauer. Today Show Olympics

The figure on the gold medal actually is an image of “Winged Nike,” the ancient goddess of victory. But if a symbol, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, that goddess will always represent something more than mythology to May.

Barbara May, who died of cancer in 2002, was undergoing chemotherapy in 2000 when she traveled to Sydney to see her daughter play with McPeak. They finished fifth.

Misty returned home, spent as much time as possible with her mother until the end, then thought about giving up the sport. She had been through so much, including knee reconstruction in 2001, and missed the inspiration her mother always offered.

“There was a point where I wanted to quit because every time I played, that would bring back memories,” she said. “But I knew I wanted to play. She always wanted me to.”

May found consolation and love with Matt Treanor, a catcher in the Florida Marlins’ organization who is now with their Triple-A club in Albuquerque. He had known tragedy, too, when his brother was shot and killed in Los Angeles in 2002.

“He cries in front of me, I cry in front of him,” she said. “Both of us hang onto each other.”

Treanor, who will marry May in November, couldn’t come to Athens, but he called her on her cellphone minutes after she won the gold.

“He’s been crying and happy, and the rest of his teammates have been beating on the wall and screaming for her,” Butch May, Misty’s father, said after he also spoke with Treanor.

May, completely healed from an abdominal tear a few months ago, had plenty of support here, including her cousin, tennis player Taylor Dent. But nothing has been more important to her than the belief throughout the Olympics that her mom influenced her matches from heaven.

“There will be no wind or anything and I’ll hit a bad shot and it will go over,” she said. “I won’t know how it made it over. But my mom loved to play. Maybe she’s just everywhere.

“She would’ve been so excited. But I feel like I’m playing what she wanted me to play and doing everything she would’ve wanted me to do. She would’ve been so excited to meet Matt. I feel bad she never had the chance.”

Butch May, who played indoor volleyball for the United States team that finished seventh at the 1968 Olympics, looked more exhausted than his daughter after the final match.

“It’s been a long ride but worth it,” he said.

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He spoke of the inner strength, the single-minded drive that his wife had in life and on the tennis court, and that his daughter inherited.

“Snakes, just because you cut the rattles off, it doesn’t mean they’re not poisonous. They’re still snakes,” he said.

Misty May stayed tough through everything and, despite doubts by many others, never considered pulling out of the Olympics when she strained her abdomen. She and Walsh had been gold-medal favorites since last year, when they began an unprecedented 90-match, 15-tournament winning streak. The streak ended in June, the week after May was hurt.

You could see that all-business attitude throughout the tournament — she and Walsh never dropped a set — and in the final match against Brazil’s great players, Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede. Walsh and May loved the way the Brazilians have played for so long, respected them as perhaps the best in the world, and weren’t taking any chances.

Behar and Bede played marvelously in the rocking Club Med atmosphere of the stadium, where the packed crowd of about 10,000 roared on every point and the men ogled the scantily clad cheerleaders from the Canary Islands.

The Americans led all the way to a 21-17, 21-11 finish, but they never took anything for granted.

“We got to that 17th point in the second set and it was just like, OK, push four more,” May said. “I didn’t hear the crowd or anything. I was in the zone.”

She had been in the zone from the start, stayed that way till the end. She had an angel on her shoulder and now has a gold around her neck.

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