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London • The night was all American at the Horse Guards Parade on Wednesday. Just a few paces from 10 Downing Street, a British announcer led the crowd in chants of "USA."
"Let's see those star-spangled banners flying high, London!" he yelled with a proper lilt.
King George III would have had a stroke.
But the reason for the jubilation? The classic American storyline. They spent eight happy years together, then they broke up. After two years apart, they decided to give their relationship another try.
In the shadows of castles, this was the true happily ever after.
On Wednesday, on land where kings hosted jousting matches in the 16th century, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings won their third straight beach volleyball Olympic gold medal.
"We've been walking around the stadium saying it feels like an out-of-body experience," May-Treanor said after defeating fellow Americans Jennifer Kessy and April Ross in two sets. "This one does feel different. It was kind of a numbness, like, 'What just happened?' "
Here's what happened: On the last night they will ever play together, May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings were nearly perfect. They chased balls out of bounds, they poked when someone else might have spiked, they spiked when different players might have set.
"We really tried everything," Ross said, "and they were on their game."
For the best duo in the limited history of beach volleyball, it was also their last game. When Ross' serve skipped just beyond the baseline, that was it.
Wish you May, wish she might, but May-Treanor said before the Games that her career would end here, and Wednesday night she stuck to it.
"It's time for me to be a wife," say May-Treanor, who is married to Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Matt Treanor. "I want to be a mom. And share time with my family."
If she needs advice, she can look to her friend, Walsh Jennings. Since Beijing, she has had two sons, and Tuesday she found them both, held them and cried at the edge of the sand.
"We're going to be able to be girlfriends," Walsh Jennings said, "and share in each other's families and in each other's lives."
The tandem saved the drama for after the match. In the 37 minutes they played, they were in control throughout, even when the first set was tied 13-13. They won both sets 21-16, although the actual match felt incidental to the day.
"The bond we have and the understanding that we have for each other is so special," May-Treanor said.
They teamed up after Walsh Jennings played at the 2000 Sydney Olympics with the indoor American team. By 2004, she had converted to the beach and, with May-Treanor, made waves.
After Beijing, the two separated while May-Treanor recovered from injury, thinking she was done playing, and Walsh Jennings focused on her family. But competition called.
They did not lose a single set in either of their first two gold-medal runs, and fell only once in London, an ultimately insignificant first set against Austria in pool play.
The dominance was the same, but this time around was different.
Walsh Jennings is 33 and has her eyes set on another Olympics with a new partner. May-Treanor is 35 and knew these Games would be her last.
So she savored them.
"The first two medals, I think it was more volleyball," May-Treanor said. "The friendship was there but it was all volleyball, volleyball. This was so much more about the friendship, the togetherness, the journey. And volleyball was just a small part of it."
Twitter: @oramb —
Going out on top
R Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings beat a team of fellow Americans in straight sets to win their third consecutive beach volleyball Olympic gold medal.
• May-Treanor previously announced she would retire after the Olympics.