In the 2012 London Olympics women's beach volleyball final—set to air in primetime at 7 PM CDT on NBC—the United States are guaranteed to win the gold and silver medals, thanks to semifinal wins from both stalwarts Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings and first-time Olympians Jen Kessy and April Ross. That leaves China in a position to win a bronze medal, but if Brazil can pull out a win in the bronze medal match (set to run live on NBC at 1 PM) the US will pull off a crucial two-medal gain in the 2012 Olympic medal count—which, hopefully, you're following as obsessively as we are.
Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings won the gold medal in Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008, but they weren't top-seeded on their way through the women's beach volleyball tournament in London. At 34 and 35 they're one match away from retiring undefeated in Olympic play.
All that's standing between them and that impressive feat, of course, are two more Americans. Kessy and Ross, in their first Olympics, upset the top-seeded Brazilian squad in the semifinals to get here. Which is some consolation for us medal count hounds, but probably not enough to keep May-Treanor and Walsh-Jennings (that's two people) from worrying about finishing off their run flawlessly.