Bikini Party On The Beach

Spider-Man is sipping a beer and posing for pictures with a family from Spain while a couple of men in togas, probably not direct decedents of Socrates, are wearing Olympic rings on their heads and dancing to Bruce Springsteen.

 

There is sport, and then there is Olympic beach volleyball where the matches serve as a temporary distraction from the party breaking out in the stands and the bikini-clad dance team, which is stirring emotions and controversy at the venue.

 

"The atmosphere is great," says Ann Crump, from Oregon. "I've been to a few other events but there is nothing like this. But that's not even a high school dance team. They can't dance."

Nicole Sanderson, an Australian beach volleyball player, says that the dancers are "a little bit offensive" which is rather interesting since Sanderson and the rest of the female teams are all wearing the same skimpy outfits as the dancers. The players just use the more politically correct term, sports bra.

 

"Happy days mate," says Justin Davies, an Aussie dressed as Spider-Man who claims to be a children's entertainer. "Have you seen Brazil? It's pretty good."

 

The Brazilian men and particularly their women - Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar, Ana Paula Connelly and Sandra Pires - continue to be featured attractions at the Faliro Beach Volleyball Centre, located along the coast in Kallithea, 20 miles south of Athens. When anyone says "it was extremely hot at the Brazilian match today," the most commonly used comeback line is "and how was the weather?"

 

The U.S. women have fared well in the competition. The top-seeded and undefeated team of Misty May and Kerri Walsh cruised past Tian Jia and Wang Fe of China in the Round of 16 yesterday, while fourth-seeded Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs defeated Eva Celbova and Sona Novakova of the Czech Republic to join May and Walsh in the quarterfinals.

 

Two-man and two-woman beach volleyball was invented on the sand of southern California and debuted as a medal sport at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. Four years later on Bondi Beach in Sydney, it attracted the fifth-largest television audience of the 28 sports.

 

Attendance may be slow at other events in Greece, but not beach volleyball. Even in the sweltering heat, the fans still come to sing, dance and watch the fierce competition on the sand.

 

The setting is not unlike a typical NBA game, although music is only played between points, not during the play itself. At timeouts, water is sprayed into the crowd to provide some relief from the sun. When there is a break in the action, either a grounds crew will rake the sands smooth or dancers, imported from the Canary Islands, will whip the masses into a frenzy.

 

Dressed in bright orange outfits, they gyrate on the sand just like the Knicks City Dancers do on the floor at Madison Square Garden. Dancers are also being used for the basketball competition but this is the first time a dance team was hired to work the at volleyball venue.

 

The crowd never sits still, dancing to everything from the Beach Boys to Outkast. And when the rapper Nelly sings "it's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes," he obviously doesn't realize that everyone - players, spectators, dancers - are way ahead of him.

 

"When the matches are going on, the focus is on the athletes," says Bob Clarke, a spokesman for FIVB, the sports governing body. "The dancers are only here to enhance the environment for the spectator."

 

None of the players are complaining about the crowd's enthusiasm. The American team, 12th-seeded Dax Holdren and Stein Metzger upset the fourth-seeded pair, Germany's Markus Dieckmann and Jonas Reckermann, in three sets on Friday. Afterwards, Holdren said there is a noticeable difference between the crowds in Europe and the United States.

 

"In California, the fans have a tendency to sit on their hands and wait for something to happen," Holdren said after advancing to the quarterfinals. "I would have to dive for ball and break my leg to get applause. This is an incredible environment. You had Germans and Americans waving flags, music blasting. Who wouldn't want to be a part of that?"

Tags: dancers beach volleyball dance seeded their holdren competition players crowd