If you’ve heard local lore about Misty May-Treanor, either from her days as a Long Beach State volleyball player or recent tales from her extended stint as part of the most dominating beach volleyball tandem in history, you’ve probably heard that she’s genuine, that rarest of qualities in a top-level athlete/celebrity. The kind of player who’s the best in history at her sport, and whose famous celebration dance airs every commercial break during the NBA Finals as part of a Gatorade spot. But genuine she is, and that’s why she didn’t just show up to the Special Olympics Summer Games this year for photo ops–she showed up, as she has before, to do work.
May-Treanor stayed for a good half hour after Saturday morning’s Breakfast of Champions, posing for pictures and signing autographs long after most of the other guests of honor had departed. Then on Sunday, she was in the Pyramid (where her jersey is the most recent to be retired) handing out medals to the more than 300 competitors, not seeking out reporters but rather giving her time to volunteers and athletes, talking to everyone that approached her. She gave each athlete a smile, and a high five.
“They’ve made me a better person and athlete just being involved with this,” she told us. May-Treanor’s relationship with the Special Olympics goes back to 2000, when she was still young in her beach career. “I was asked to pass out medals at the volleyball event in the Fall games at Riverside,” she said. “I drove out there and passed them out, and I just wanted to do it every year.”
A successful career kept her traveling through some of the events she wanted to make, but May-Treanor says there are still a number of athletes she sees every time she volunteers. “Seeing the same faces, I feel like I have friends here, even though I’ve been in and out. It’s just such a great organization, what they do for the kids and the families.”
And the former Long Beach State player and adopted Long Beach spokesperson says this city is the perfect place to hold the Summer Games. “The whole city of Long Beach is about community, it’s a perfect fit having it here. And Long Beach State is such a great facility for sports, it’s great to have it centrally located, with the Pyramid as a background.”
On Sunday, while passing out medals, May-Treanor saw a girl dancing on the podium and broke into a boogie with her reminiscent of the Gatorade ad, which was seen by millions of people last night—this dance was a little more private, a moment shared between two competitors, both of them laughing. That same note of genuine truth was in her voice when she explained how she saw her relationship with the athletes. “We’re all Olympians. We all share the common goal of sport, and wanting to have fun and compete.”
May-Treanor points out her retired jersey in the Pyramid while handing out medals