Who Won the 2008 Olympic Gold Medal for Women's Beach Volleyball?

According to The New York Times, The United States took home the gold medal from the 2008 women's beach volleyball event in the summer Olympics.  The New York Times also reports that the match was a close one, and one that was played in front of a sell-out crowd, despite rainstorms.

The gold-medal winning US women's olympic volleyball team in the 2008 summer olympics was led by volleyball phenoms Misty Mae-Traynor and Kerri Walsh.

The duo beat the Chinese home team of Jie Wang and Jia Tian with a score of 21-18 and 21-18, securing their place at the top of the list in front of a crowd of around 12,000 people. They also helped to sell out all available tickets for the venue at Chaoyang Park.

The scores for each team show that the matches were intense. In both matches, each team took a turn in the lead before coming to a tie at 18 points. In both matches, this would be the point where the American duo would take control and refuse to surrender it, preventing the Chinese team from scoring again before the end of either match.

In all, the American volleyball duo won 108 separate matches consecutively to take the gold medal for their sport home, a grueling feat for any team sport, and an astonishing record.

As far as regular indoor Volleyball is concerned, ESPN indicates the US did well there too, winning the Silver medal, but losing the gold to Brazil. The Washington Post reported that the Gold Medal win for Brazil was the first their women's team had ever earned in the sport.