Though you wouldn’t know it from watching NBC’s frustratingly America-centric coverage of the games, two of my favorite Beach Volleyball players, the Latvian “giant-killers” Martins Plavins and Aleksandrs Samoilovs were knocked out of the running for the quarterfinals a few days back.
Honestly, most people never thought they had a chance at even getting past the preliminaries, but after killing Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser in their opening game at Beijing, the “giant-killers” were on a roll. After a surprising loss to Argentina on August 11th, they beat Switzerland 2-1 on August 13th, and were seriously on their way to the quarterfinals before getting wiped out by Austria on August 16th in a crushing 2-0 match at Chaoyang Park.
But even if they didn’t get much screen time — I had to settle for photos of their matches online! — these Baltic beach bums kicked some serious ass in Beijing and certainly put Latvia on the map in my book.
So, rock on, my Baltic brothers. Hope we see ya again in London in 2012!
make. see. eat. do. 
That’s been Tim’s major complaint about NBC’s coverage … that it’s so America-focused. I don’t mind though because I can only watch so much Olympics, that I’d rather see the home team play if I can.
I haven’t watched very much of the beach volleyball this year, but after reading your post, I wish I have been.