Joe Willie On The Shrimpbox: Good Olympic Hosts

A U.S. BEACH VOLLEYBALL PLAYER LOST HER WEDDING RING DURING A MATCH . . . BUT A BUNCH OF VOLUNTEERS HELPED HER FIND IT:


Have you heard of these beach volleyball players, KERRI WALSH and MISTY MAY-TREANOR? They took home the gold for the U.S. at the 2004 Olympics in Athens . . . and they're the U.S.'s best shot for beach volleyball gold this year in Beijing, too.


--Anyway, on Sunday, Kerri and Misty had their first match against a team from Japan . . . and at some point during the match, Kerri Walsh went up to block a spike, and the volleyball knocked her wedding ring completely OFF her finger.


--So the ladies finished smoking the Japanese team, and a few hours later, after all the day's matches were done, a bunch of volunteers got together and combed through 17,000 TONS of sand to help Kerri find her ring . . . which they eventually did.

So what's my point? Kerri's ring was found by a Chinese volunteer. Now, maybe it's just me, but I sort of assumed that the Chinese would be total a-holes as hosts . . . but that couldn't be further from the truth.)


--In fact . . . crazy stabbings aside . . . I'd go so far as to say that the Chinese have been downright gracious in their acceptance of other nations' athletes. I mean, did you hear the way they cheered for the U.S. men's basketball team?


If the Games were in the U.S., we'd have booed the crap out of China's basketball team. I guess what I'm getting at is that it's kind of surprising how cool the Chinese people have been, all things considered, don't you think?