Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh during their golden moment after winning their third straight Olympic gold medal

London, England (August 9, 2012)

As could be expected with the quality of the top four seeds who also ended up to be the women's final four, the final stats reveal that each of the final four teams were the team and individual leaders in every statistical category at this year's beach volleyball competition of the London 2012 Olympic Games that ended Wednesday after 11 days of competition.

All the crowd-pleasing, heart-pounding action was held in the purpose-built, sold-out 15,000-seat stadium on the grounds of the iconic Horse Guards Parade as the majestic venue includes a portion of adjacent St. James Park in historic central London.

With the men's medal matches Thursday night, the women's medal matches saw an all-USA gold medal match where the iconic Misty May-Treanor/Kerri Walsh won their unprecedented third consecutive gold medal by defeating compatriots Jennifer Kessy/April Ross in two sets and in the bronze medal match Brazil's Juliana Silva/Larissa Franca came from behind to beat China's Chen Xue/Xi Zhang producing impressive final team and individual official statistics reflect the depth and quality of the field that played so artistically, passionately and gracefully at Horse Guards Parade.

A total of 24 women's beach volleyball teams from 17 countries started playing in London onJuly 28 in the purpose-built, sold-out 15,000-seat stadium on the grounds of the iconic Horse Guards Parade as the majestic venue also included a portion of adjacent St. James's Park in historic central London. The women's competition closed with the most iconic women's team in the sport's history taking a final golden bow.

After Thursday's  Day 11 of this Olympic Games women's beach volleyball competition, of the 54 women's matches held, 32 were two-set matches with six seed breakthroughs with an average time of 36 minutes per match. The other 22 matches all went to the tie-break saw just five seed breakthroughs with an average time of 54 minutes.

USA's gold medallists May-Treanor/Walsh led this year's London 2012 Olympic games in two of four team categories as well as two of six and second in one other individual categories. USA's silver medallists Kessy/Ross won one team category, were second in another, led two individual categories and were tied for second in one and second in another.

Brazil's bronze medallists Juliana/Larissa where second in one team category, third in another and individually, they were third in one category. China's fourth place finishers Xue/Zhang also had impressive stats in this year's Olympic Games. They won one team category and were second in two and third in the other while individually they led two categories, were tied for second in one, and second in three others.

USA's legendary medallists May-Treanor/Walsh, three-time FIVB SWATCH World Champions (2003, 2005, 2007) who have now retired with an unparalled Olympic record of 21 consecutive match wins without a loss (7-0 this year) and a 42-1 won-loss record in Olympic sets, led this year's Games as a team in blocks with 25 and digs with 151. Individually, May-Treanor led in digs with 107 and were tied for second in points with 125 while Walsh led the Olympics with 24 blocks.

USA's Kessy/Ross, 2009 FIVB SWATCH World Champions who were playing in their first Olympic Games, were tied the tournament lead in attack success percentage at 58% and they were second in aces with 23. Individually, Ross led in attack success percentage at 62%, led in serve speed at 81 at km/h, second in aces with 14 and tied for second in points with 125.

Brazil's Juliana/Larissa, the 2011 FIVB SWATCH World Champions and six-time FIVB SWATCH World Tour season point champs, as a team in these Olympics were second in digs with 135 and third in aces with 22. Individually, Larissa finished third in digs with 79.

China's Xue/Zhang, bronze medallists at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, as a team led in aces with 28, were tied for the lead in attack success percentage at 58%, second blocks with 22 and third in digs with 129 to be the only final four team in the top three in all four team categories. Individually, Zhang led in points with 139 and was second in digs with 90 while Xue led in aces with 21, was second in blocks with 22, second in attack success percentage at 61% and tied for second in points at 125.

In the team stats catagory, Russia's Anastasia Vasina/Anna Vozakova were third in blocks with 20 and tied for third in attack success percentage at 55% were Brazil's Maria Antonelli/Talita Antunes, Germany's Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler and Greece's Vasiliki Arvaniti/Maria Tsiartsiania.

Individually for the tournament, Russia's young Vasina was third in blocks with 20 and Austria's Stefanie Schwaiger was third in aces with 13..

In the serving speed catagory, behind USA's Ross, second was Germany's Sara Goller (79 km/h).

In some of the miscellaneous numbers, the longest women's match was one hour, nine minutes when Russia's Ekaterina Khomyakova/Evgeniya Ukolova beat Canada's Marie-Andree Lessard/Annie Martin 21-18, 28-30 and 15-13 on July 28. The shortest match length was 28 minutes in three seperate matches, one each on July 28, July 30 and August 1.

The highest scoring two-set match is 87 recorded August 5 when USA's Kessy/Ross defeated Czech Republic's Kristyna Kolocova/Marketa Slukova, 25-23, 21-18 in 49 minutes and the highest scoring three-set match is 128 was July 31 when Brazil's Maria Antonelli/Antunes defeated Germany's Sara Goller/Laura Laudwig, 21-19, 29-31 and 15-13 in one hour, five minutes.

The highest scoring women's set was during Brazil's Antonelli/Antunes three-set win over Germany's Goller/Ludwig when the German's won the second set 31-29 on July 31.

Single-match leaders were aces—tie between Brazil's Maria Antonelli and Switzerland's Simone Kuhn with seven each; blocks—Russia's Vasina has the top two individual matches with nine against China and eight against Switzerland and digs—China's Zhang with 27 against USA's May-Treanor/Walsh in the semifinals on Aug. 7.

 

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings won their third straight gold medal in Olympic beach volleyball on Wednesday. The pair defeated fellow Americans Jennifer Kessy and April Ross 21-16, 21-16. (Aug. 8)

 

 

Women's Final Four Top Beach Volleyball Stats at London 2012 Olympic Games