BEIJING - Two women wearing bikinis in Georgia's red-and-white colors stepped onto the sand at the Olympic beach volleyball venue Wednesday to play a Russian team -- and soon took up an unlikely cause.

The women, Cristine Santanna and Andrezza Martins, were born and live in Brazil. They are in Beijing because the president of Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili, some time ago asked them to play for his country in the Olympics. Upon learning that Saakashvili's wife, Sandra, was once a volleyball player, they agreed. For this they were granted dual citizenship.

Before Wednesday's match, they felt so little animosity toward their Russian opponents, Alexandra Shiryaeva and Natalia Uryadova, that they stepped under the net and gave them hugs.

But afterward, as Santanna and Martins celebrated their three-set victory over the higher-seeded Russians, they found themselves in the middle of a geopolitical conflict they did not anticipate. Likewise, Shiryaeva and Uryadova were uncomfortable at finding themselves suddenly cast in the mold of Cold War-era Soviet villains.

"We're not actually playing against the Georgian team," Uryadova said through an interpreter as reporters crowded around to interview them. "Rather, we are playing against Brazilian friends here."

Shiryaeva expressed a similar sentiment. "If they were Georgian, it certainly would be interesting," she said. "But they are not. They don't know who is the president of Georgia, I am sure."

Santanna and Martins did not take kindly to that remark. Even though their Georgian experience is all of two trips there, they said they understood what their victory meant to the Georgian people after days of battle against militarily superior Russia.

Two days earlier, the Georgian Olympic team in Beijing had met and talked about leaving for home because of the war. But President Saakashvili asked the team to stay to be an inspiration to those fighting at home.

Responding to Shiryaeva, Santanna said she not only knows who Saakashvili is, but also that he personally signed their passports.

"I feel like I'm a Georgian," she said. "... I'm very proud today."

Santanna and Martins were not alone in their victory. Georgians won gold medals in judo and Greco-Roman wrestling on Wednesday.

"It means very much for our country because of the conflict now," Irakli Tsirekidze said after beating a Russian in the semifinals before winning the men's 90-kilogram judo competition.

"Thank you to my country. Thank you to my people."

The New York Times and Washington Post contributed to this report.