adminWhat first attracted you to the sport in which women in tiny bikinis leap about in the sand, Mr President? Such was the question prompted by George Bush’s visit to the Beijing Olympics’ beach volleyball venue back in 2008, when, in a golden photo opportunity, American player Misty May-Treanor appeared to bend over and ask the president to smack her barely clothed behind (Bush demurely opted for her lower back).
On Tuesday, former Labour sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe posed a similar question at a Culture, Media and Sport select committee meeting, asking whether it was “an oddity” that beach volleyball appears to be one of the most popular Olympic sports for MPs: government departments have bought 410 tickets for beach volleyball matches at this summer’s games, compared with 246 for athletics.
A perfectly plausible excuse was proffered – that the popularity of beach volleyball, which only became an Olympic sport in 1996, is down to the fact that many of the matches will take place at the weekend, when MPs are most likely to be free. But it’s worth pointing out that the beach volleyball matches will be held on Horse Guards Parade, affording workers inside Whitehall and Downing Street a ringside seat – as David Cameron joked last summer, when matches were played there in a temporary test venue. “I’m not going to cut down the trees at No 10 so I can get a better view,” he told the Evening Standard, “though there is an enormous temptation.”
Played in minimal uniforms (“shorts or a bathing suit”, according to the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, although most women, especially the Brazilians, opt for the briefest of briefs and crop-top), beach volleyball is always going to attract prurient admirers: last summer’s London test matches were reported to have proved particularly popular with corporate groups. So when the Olympic matches kick off on Saturday 28 July, will the 15,000-seater venue just be filled with goggle-eyed MPs and off-duty businessmen?
Not according to Jo Healy, a former player and spokeswoman for British Volleyball. “We did see a lot of men in suits drinking beer at last summer’s test event,” she says, “but they really got into the spirit of the game. We expect the Olympic stadium to be filled with the sport’s many international fans — who are much more interested in the players’ skill than in what they’re wearing.” — Daily Mail.
Online Reporter