Q: Do you feel honored that the sport has made it
and to have been there<br> at the time that it has
made it?<br><br> Dain: When we got here it started
sinking in. It’s such a unique<br> atmosphere. You have
such a great time: people are doing the wave and<br>
celebrating. The energy out there was awesome and I think it
is different<br> than any other sport. We feel
fortunate that it is an Olympic sport and I<br> think it’s
crucial to the future of beach volleyball.<br><br> Q:
Tell us about qualifying so late for the Olympics; you
only had a<br> month to prepare.<br><br> Dain: It was
definitely the 11th hour and last opportunity for us to get
in,<br> and I think that set us on a pace to win the gold
medal. That kept us very<br> focused. A lot of teams
knew for a year that they were going to be in the<br>
Olympics but we never knew that.<br><br> Q: What are your
plans for the future?<br><br> Eric: Right now, just
enjoy it and try to take it in stride. Whatever
hoops<br> we need to jump through, we will. We’re not
retiring by any means; it<br> took us two years to get
here, and there hasn’t been a lot of time spent<br>
with family and friends. It’s a big relief, so we’re
just going to enjoy<br> winning this gold
medal.<br><br> Q: How do you compliment each other?<br><br>
Dain: We’re very similar. It’s nice to be with someone
who works hard at<br> staying in shape and hustling
and getting the job done. We’re not the<br> tallest
guys out there and we don’t have any one specialty,
but the key to<br> our success is that we’re both
very well-rounded. We share time blocking<br> at the
net, on defense, we’re both very aggressive on our
serves and<br> hustle<br> very hard for each point. A
lot of people out there don’t do that.<br><br> Q: The
opening ceremony seemed to be very important to<br>
African-Americans in terms of race reconciliation. Did you take
away<br> anything from that?<br><br> Dain: It felt special
to be the first African-American player to win a
beach<br> volleyball tournament in 1997. If that can get
more people involved,<br> that’s great, but when I
step out on the court, I’m like any other player.
<br><br> Q: The Brazilians seemed to be yelling at each
other a lot. Do you guys<br> do that?<br><br> Dain: Not
really. When one of us makes a mistake, we know it and
know<br> the other one knows it, so there’s no point
talking about it. What we talk<br> about is what we need
to do together as a team.