Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, stopped by Horse Guards Parade on Saturday night to watch Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings dismantle the Netherlands in straight sets in beach volleyball.

Here's a picture of them waiting for journalists to finish up with the two-time gold medalists in the mix zone: http://goo.gl/tVcuy. (No, he's not behind protective glass. He's out in the open air, behind the announcer's table. The picture was taken from inside a control booth — through, well, windows.)

Asked what he thought of the Americans' performance, Gates told The Associated Press: "It was fantastic."

Gates is a bit of a beach volleyball groupie, it turns out. He says he went to see matches "at Bondi and Beijing." May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings won the gold medal in 2008 in Beijing but were not a team at the Sydney Games, when the competition was held at Bondi Beach. (They won their first at Athens in '04.)

— Jimmy Golen — Twitter http://twitter.com/jgolen

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — "Eyes on London" shows you the Olympics through the eyes of Associated Press journalists across the 2012 Olympic city and around the world. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item.