George Bush plays beach volleyball in Beijing

Beach volleyball with its scantily clad competitors has its critics as an Olympic sport, but President George W. Bush suggested he was not one of them.
His visit to the beach volleyball venue in Chaoyang Park in the city's east was unexpected however. Both men's and women's teams were practising, and it was the women's pairing of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh who eventually persuaded an initially reluctant president to try his hand. At first that was limited to the ball, which Mr Bush managed to hit twice and miss once.