Free Republic

A pair of German volleyball stars who threatened to boycott an upcoming tournament in Qatar have won their case. Officials in charge of the Katara Beach Volleyball Cup, a tournament scheduled to take place in the Muslim nation of Qatar had planned to make competitors ditch their traditional bikini wear and don sand trousers instead. However, German volleyball stars Karla Borger and Julia Sude threatened to boycott the event unless they could wear their bikinis in the expected 85-90 degree heat. “We are there to do our job, but are being prevented from wearing our work clothes,” Borger reportedly told...

German beach volleyball stars Karla Borger and Julia Sude have said they will boycott a tournament in Qatar because it is “the only country” where players are forbidden from wearing bikinis on court. “We are there to do our job, but are being prevented from wearing our work clothes,” Borger told radio station Deutschlandfunk on Sunday. “This is really the only country and the only tournament where a government tells us how to do our job – we are criticising that.”

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 match against 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.