LONDON – Red. Blue. Gold.

No white for Misty May-Treanor’s Olympic manicure. What would be the point of that?

Gold is far more fitting for the two-time Olympic beach volleyball champion, anyway.

May-Treanor, who paints her own nails despite a shaky right hand that is only a slight annoyance, plans to tidy up her look now that she and partner Kerri Walsh Jennings are done with pool play and on to the single-elimination rounds, beginning Friday night.

May-Treanor revealed the other day she has a tremor in her right hand. And, no, she insists, it’s nothing to be concerned about; she hasn’t even discussed it with her doctor. But when she tried to help a friend with her makeup in London, she quickly decided it was a bad move.

“I have a shaking right hand; I have a tremor,” May-Treanor said, picking at her fingers. “It’s hard to paint my nails nicely. I was going to paint them red, white and blue, but I didn’t know what to do with the white. So I went with gold.”

Do forgive the American star if the manicure isn’t quite as spot on as her serve. Every little touch — literally, too — means so much right now as her brilliant career winds down.

This is May-Treanor’s last Olympics. She already celebrated her 35th birthday this week at central London’s picturesque Horse Guards Parade with a trio of pastries, each topped with — what else? — a gold candle.

Three gold medals would be even sweeter for this pair of American megastars.

Yet the U.S. team showed a brief moment of vulnerability Wednesday night by dropping a set to Austrian sisters Doris and Stefanie Schwaiger. May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings rallied for a 17-21, 21-8, 15-10 victory.

Spanning three Olympics, the Americans had gone 16 straight matches and 32 consecutive sets without dropping one.

“I was furious,” Walsh Jennings said, determined to hit the practice court and work out any kinks.

As for May-Treanor’s fashion statement, she’s not alone. So many others on the Olympic sand also are sporting snazzy nails. Some are a series of stripes on each nail, or like May-Treanor, alternating colors.

Russia’s Evgenia Ukolova plans to join in the trend.

“It’s nice for the next round,” Ukolova said. “TV sometimes focuses on the nails. Usually players do this only on the Olympic games because it’s such a special tournament.”

The Germans certainly get it.

“If I win a gold, I don’t care about nails,” said a smiling Sara Goller, with one stripe each of gold, red and black decorating her nails. “Everybody has so much pressure on them, that it’s nice to have a little something fun to do.”

 

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