ATHENS, Greece - The beach party at the Olympics turned into an all-American celebration.

Americans Kerri Walsh and Misty May won the gold medal at Athens' wildest venue Tuesday night, a fitting finale for the most dominant run in the history of beach volleyball.

The top-ranked U.S. duo beat second-seeded Brazilians Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar 21-17, 21-11, and did it without ever dropping a set in seven matches.

"It kind of hit me when I went and saw my family and they had tears in their eyes," Walsh said. "They flew a million miles to see it and they hate flying. It's really special."

The two lived up to the hype that began during their unprecedented 90-match, 15-tournament winning streak that ended last June. They were featured in a credit-card commercial that aired during the Super Bowl and in several magazines after that.

Suddenly, they were celebrities, recognized wherever they went - with all the pressure in the world to excel at the Olympics.

And they did.

"It's been such a whirlwind, with so many emotions," Walsh said. "We've had so many great opportunities and, through it all, we've had to keep our focus on winning the gold. I'm feeling everything right now."

Earlier Tuesday, Americans Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs won the bronze medal, beating Australia's Natalie Cook and Nicole Sanderson 21-18, 15-21, 15-9.

May and Walsh are invited to a post-Olympics party at McPeak's home in California, where 10 bottles of Dom Perignon await.

"I will definitely be there," Walsh said.

With the 6-foot-3 Walsh dominating at the net and the quick May scrambling and diving for every dig, they were favorites since last summer, when their remarkable streak began.

"We have so much confidence in each other, we never doubted ourselves," May said.

"We deserve it," Walsh added.

On match point in a surprisingly lopsided gold-medal final, Walsh hammered a spike just inside the line. Walsh fell to her knees as May ran to embrace her and both fell backward in the sand.

"I just tackled her," May said. "I didn't care if I broke her knees because she has a lot of time to rest."

Questions about the pair's Olympic chances arose in June, shortly after May pulled an abdominal muscle. She spent most of the summer rehabbing while Walsh kept homing her game with other partners.

If they had weaknesses, they certainly weren't apparent in Athens, where they were untouchable, improving to 108-8 over two years.

"A lot of people had doubts," May said. "I tried to tell people I never had doubts."

But they never took the medal for granted.

"People said, 'You've got the gold medal in the bag,'" Walsh said. "However flattering that is, we know that's not true."

The toasts at the post-Olympics party will taste especially sweet to McPeak, who finished fifth at the Olympics in 1996 and 2000 - both times because her partner was injured.

Two weeks before Atlanta, Nancy Reno tore a rotator cuff and couldn't do much more than set in the tournament. Five weeks before Sydney, May - then her teammate - tore an abdominal muscle. She and McPeak hardly practiced together before the games began.

Youngs played on the U.S. indoor team that finished a disappointing seventh in Atlanta in 1996. She hit the beach the following year and paired with McPeak in 2002 with Athens on her mind.

The Americans' bronze victory kept Cook off the medal stand for the first time since beach volleyball became an Olympic sport in 1996. Cook won the bronze in Atlanta and the gold in Sydney, both times with Kerri Pottharst. She teamed with Sanderson last year after Pottharst retired.

The Americans controlled the first set, but trailed 16-13 in the second. On a dive for the ball, Cook aggravated her right shoulder, which she keeps heavily taped to protect a torn rotator cuff. She wasn't the same after hitting the sand, resorting to serving underhanded and grimacing after every fall.

McPeak and Youngs dominated the decisive set and when Youngs finished the match with a tap to open sand, she sprinted to the back of the court and leaped into the air. Youngs hugged her partner, then ran into the stands to hug family members.

She grabbed an American flag and found a laurel wreath to put on her head.

The bronze medal completed a historic year for the 35-year-old McPeak, who became the sport's winningest female player with a victory at Manhattan Beach, Calif., in June. She lives within walking distance of that beach and had a bottle of champagne waiting after that victory, too.