US beach volleyball queens Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor overcame a stern challenge from China's Wang Jie and Tian Jia to successfully defend their Olympic title on Thursday.
In heavy rain, the Americans won 21-18, 21-18 to stretch their winning streak to an astounding 108 matches without dropping a set in seven appearances.
‘Definitely you don't want to look up too much because you lose the ball if rain is dropping in your eyes,’ said May-Treanor.
‘I think it's harder to be a fan than a player in the rain. This is the reason why we play in bathing suits.’
China made the early running but May-Treanor, 30, coolly reeled off three points in a row to create three first-set points before spiking the winner.
China briefly led midway in the second set before the US regained control with Walsh converting the first gold-medal point.
A tearful Tian saluted the crowd and hugged Wang on the podium as she finally won an Olympic medal at her third attempt.
‘We were relaxed and we delivered our best performance today,’ she said.
‘But you can see the US team are very strong. They are a lot better than us so to take them close was the best we could do.’
Earlier, Chen Xue and Zhang Xi claimed third place on the podium with a 21-19, 21-17 victory over Renata Ribeiro and Talita Rocha of Brazil.
China's silver-bronze finish breaks the stranglehold held by Brazil, Australia and the United States, who between them had collected all the women's Olympic medals since the sport's introduction in 1996.
‘They have such a bright future ahead of them I don't think they should be disappointed,’ said May-Treanor.
‘You want to end up on top but to have two China teams on the podium, with all the teams we've had to face, they should be very proud of themselves.’
Silver medallist Tian has epitomised China's steady rise after she finished 19th at Sydney 2000 and ninth in Athens four years ago.
May-Treanor also reached the 2000 quarter-finals with Holly McPeak.
Thursday's scoreline was the closest faced by the US champions who defeated Brazilian challengers Ribeiro and Rocha in the semis.
