U.S. men's volleyball team ends rollercoaster Games on a high
BEIJING (Reuters) - A rollercoaster Olympics which began with a tragedy could not have ended on a higher note for the United States men's volleyball team in Beijing.
Two weeks after a knife-wielding man killed the father-in-law of coach Hugh McCutcheon and injured his mother-in-law and a tour guide at the start of the Games, the team beat Brazil 3-1 to win America's first gold since 1988.
The men's emotionally-charged victory was also payback of sorts for the U.S. women's 3-1 loss in the final the day before at the hands of the near-perfect Brazilian women's team.
After the murder of Todd Bachman, McCutcheon left the team in his assistants' hands for three games. They went undefeated.
"We didn't have a choice but to put it out of our minds when we got on the court. I think it would have been a real disservice to the Bachman family if we would have let that drag us down," said U.S. setter Lloy Ball.
"I think in this tournament we just had a little more desire, a little more heart than everyone else and it paid off with this thing I'm not going to take off for a while," he said referring to the gold medal around his neck.
There were tears of happiness after the U.S. women won their silver medal.
It was America's second silver in the Olympics after Los Angeles, where it lost to a Chinese team that included as a player the current U.S. women's coach Lang Ping, known in China as the "Iron Hammer".
"We have nothing to be disappointed for," player Logan Tom said after the final.
For past victors, though, there was little joy in Beijing.
Athens gold medalists China took bronze in the women's competition, denying Cuba a medal for the first time since Seoul and arguably marking the end of Cuba's dominance of the sport that saw them harvest three gold medals in a row.
Cuba's coach Antonio Perdomo raised his eyebrows and made a comment about his team's waning dominance that could have summed up an Olympic volleyball tournament that saw some unlikely results in both the men's and women's competition.
"Nothing is absolute," he said.
(Editing by Jon Bramley)
