QUEST FOR GOLD: Search in sand helps recover Walsh's ring

Even the volunteers go for the gold at the Olympic beach volleyball venue.

When American beach volleyball star Kerri Walsh's wedding ring flew off during her opening match of the Olympics, venue workers combed the sand with metal detectors to find it. Volunteer Song Zhendong dug it up after about 20 minutes.

The ring came off when Walsh went up for a block in Sunday morning's victory over Japan's Mika Saiki and Chiaki Kusuhara. American broadcasters could see what happened, and they called officials from the international volleyball federation to see if the ring could be recovered.

Some 17,000 tons of sand were brought into Chaoyang Park to create the beach volleyball venue. So if finding the ring nearly six hours later wasn't exactly a needle in a haystack, it was close.

"The problem is, we rake the court," said Peter Paul Hreszczuk, the FIVB official manning the metal detector. "We heard a few noises; a few were false alarms. When we found it, it was pretty much under the net."

The ring might not be the last golden bauble for Walsh, who is married to fellow beach volleyball pro and former NCAA champion Casey Jennings. She and partner Misty May-Treanor won the gold medal at the Athens Games in 2004 and are the favorites to repeat.

—- Associated Press

FOR ZIMBABWE: Coventry tries to put country in better light

Although she swam collegiately at Auburn and now lives and trains in Austin, Texas, Kirsty Coventry knows all too well what has been happening in her home country of Zimbabwe.

There, election-related violence recently joined famine and an astronomical inflation rate as urgent concerns.

"My parents still live there, and so do my cousins and aunts and uncles. It's hard to hear what they go through," said Coventry, a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Texas.

"I'd like to shine a positive light on Zimbabwe and raise the flag a little higher than it is right now."

She has done all she can in the pool. After winning a gold, silver and bronze medal at the 2004 Games in Athens, she earned a silver medal in the 400-meter individual medley on Sunday. She followed that up today by setting a world record of 58.77 seconds in the 100 backstroke.

—- Austin American-Statesman

STANDING TOGETHER: Medalists express gesture of peace

Their countries are in an armed conflict, but a Russian and a Georgian shared a podium and an embrace after winning Olympic medals in the women's 10-meter air pistol event.

A day after Georgian athletes considered leaving due to violence back home, Nino Salukvadze took the bronze and Russia's Natalia Paderina the silver. After the medal ceremony, Salukvadze put her arm around Paderina and the two posed together for photographs. Paderina than gave Salukvadze a kiss on the cheek.

"It's very difficult for us as Georgians because of everything that's going on at home," Salukvadze said. "It was nice that Natalia Paderina came up to me after and gave me a handshake."

Georgia launched a major offensive Friday to retake control of the separatist province of South Ossetia. Russia, which has close ties to the province, responded by sending in armed convoys and aircraft. Russia bombed Georgia's capital Sunday.

Luba Golovina, an 18-year-old Georgian who competes in trampoline event, said there should be no difficulties while competing with the Russians.

"I think it's not a problem with sportsmen. It's politics," Golovina said. "Sports and politics are different."

—- Associated Press

ALMOST TWICE AS LONG AS SALTALAMACCHIA: Lifter's name not suited for autographs

Chanpim Kantatian of Thailand was a little worried that she might not make her country's Olympic weightlifting team. So last year, she went to see a fortune-teller, who told her to change her name.

The name she chose: Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon.

It seems to have worked. She won the gold medal Sunday in the 117-pound class, in which the scoreboard had her listed only as "J."

"A fortune-teller told me if I changed my name, I would go far, so I changed it because I wanted to go to the Olympics," she told reporters. "Last time, I didn't make it."

—- Los Angeles Times