ATHENS, Greece – They raced to the stands and grabbed American flags as “Born in the USA” blared over the speakers at the Olympics’ rowdiest venue.

Kerri Walsh and Misty May ended a splendid night on the beach with a gold medal, a fitting finale for the most dominant run in beach volleyball history.

The top-ranked U.S. beach volleyball duo beat second-seeded Brazilians Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar 21-17, 21-11 last night, 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.”

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 year, when they began an unprecedented 90-match, 15-tournament winning streak.

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

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

The Americans and Brazilians exchanged hugs on the medal stand before the national anthem played. Adriana and Shelda, the all-time winningest pair on the international FIVB tour, won their second straight silver medal.

On match point in a surprisingly lopsided 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 the summer rehabbing while Walsh kept honing 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 the last two years.

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

The final took on special meaning to the Americans after May sprinkled a vial of her late mother’s ashes on the sand before the gold medal match.

May had scattered some of those ashes on the same sand in tribute to her mother, Barbara, before the semifinal match the day before against McPeak and Youngs.

“We’re leaving some of her in Greece and we’re bringing the rest to Hawaii. She loved Hawaii,” said May, who has her mother’s initials and angel wings tattooed on her left shoulder.

Barbara May, who died of cancer in 2002, was undergoing chemotherapy in 2000 when she traveled to Sydney to see her daughter play with McPeak and finish fifth.

Four years later, the result was much better for both May and her former partner. Now it’s time to party: May and Walsh are invited to a post-Olympics party at McPeak’s home in California, where 10 bottles of Dom Perignon await.

The toasts will taste especially sweet to McPeak, who also finished fifth at the Olympics in 1996 because her partner was injured. Two weeks before Atlanta, Nancy Reno tore a rotator cuff and couldn’t do much more than set.

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