There is a scent of suntan oil. Limber ladies parade on the sand in their swimsuits, while men adjust their pouches and shades. A large crowd gathers, predominantly young and some drinking beer, to watch dancers perform their high-energy routines.
Combo shows the backs of female beach volleyball players making signs to their teammates in Berlin at the 2005 World Championships. [Agencies] |
It sounds like a party but actually describes mid-game entertainment at the Athens Games beach volleyball finals four years ago. The sport is a relative debutante at the quadrennial Olympic ball, but has made an instant impression since arriving on the scene in Atlanta, 1996. She is brash, revealing and unapologetic.
While no one doubts the athletic abilities of beach volleyball's players we all know what sells. Beach volleyball is the most visible attempt of a movement to package sports attractively in order to draw ratings, sell apparel and make more money.
Part of the International Olympic Committee's function is to make sports more accessible. As such it tinkers with regulations to boost audience interest (introducing race-offs in sailing), will listen to proposals for putting paddlers into short skirts, and encourages beach volleyball competitions to be like raves.
There are critics of the way beach volleyball disports itself, including Australian spiker Nicole Sanderson. She was quoted as saying of the 2004 Olympics dance troupe that performed in orange bikinis during the day and silver at night: "It's kind of disrespectful to the female players."
Yet, recent Olympic basketball games have seen the NBA hoopla of dancing girls, without complaints from players or fans. Maybe we should welcome the razzamatazz? Sportspeople, after all, are the new entertainers. According to Forbes China 2008, the country's most influential celebrities are first Yao Ming, hurdler Liu Xiang, then Jet Li.
So, let's celebrate style and fun along with sporting achievement. Beach volleyball is one of the world's fastest-growing sports. In the last three years, there were more than 130 scheduled international events and $30 million in prize money on offer.
It taps into a whole new demographic of sports junkies, including the surf dude and X-Games generation. Instead of Nike and Adidas, think Quicksilver and Oakley. At the Athens Olympics, beach volleyball was the third most-watched Olympic sport on TV.
In the 19th century female tennis players wore corsets underneath long dresses and men wore long trousers. Time have changed. Today, it's comfortable miniskirts and shorts. Swimsuits like the "revolutionary" LZR RACER do not improve the look, rather they flatten the body's bumps to reduce drag and increase buoyancy.
Practicality is an issue, but generally less is more when it comes to sports. If weightlifters or sprinters can wear an itsy-bitsy piece of lycra; equestrians dress up in boots and jackets; then bikinis on beaches seem appropriate. Some women beach volleyball players are calling on the men to go topless.
Putting photo opportunities aside, we should bear in mind sport is a celebration of the human body. In its first editions nearly 2,800 years ago athletes performed nude. A lively party atmosphere at the just-completed Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground, with its 17,000 tons of Hainan sand and banked seating, should satisfy the purists.
