A piece of Oklahoma could put the USA baseball team on good footing at this year's Olympic Games in China.

The grass covering one of the baseball fields in Beijing was grown at Oklahoma State University. It's a Bermuda grass called Riviera that was developed at OSU in 1995. Now, it's on the world stage.

Olympic officials chose the Riviera grass because it's been used on sports field all over the world. And, they knew it could handle the activity. It's also made to handle tough climates. It looks like the grass you might see in your front yard, but this is world-class, award-winning grass.

It came as a surprise to incoming freshman Sara Budke.

"That's interesting. I know OSU's good at a lot of stuff, but had no idea grass was one of them," she says.

But, it's not new to the folks at OSU and the team of ten scientists who are focused solely on developing Bermuda grass.

"This is an international, well-known program and produces well-known products, so we need to contribute to the world market," says Dr. Yanqi Wu.

China heard about the grass after it won a national quality competition. Johnson Grain out of Enid donated five-hundred pounds of seed to Beijing.

"The original vision was for it to be on all three of the baseball and softball fields," says turfgrass specialist, Dr. Dennis Martin.

The seed didn't make it overseas in time, so it's only on one of the Olympic fields. But Dr. Wu, who is from China, went to see it himself.

"What I saw and what I heard, Bermuda grass performed very well, just as we know in the U.S.," he says.

It's like a shiny gold, or green, medal for OSU.

"Don't want to brag too much, but we're pleased with it."

"The Olympics is something people look forward to every year. I love watching it on TV. Knowing a little piece of Stillwater is over there across the ocean is just awesome."

This is not the first time OSU has had its grass in the spotlight. OSU's grass covers the football field for the NFL's Washington Redskins (web|news) and the University of Arkansas. It's also on the practice field for the Indianapolis Colts and of course on many fields at Oklahoma State.

Grass isn't the only thing representing Oklahoma at the Olympics. We found at least nine athletes with Oklahoma ties competing in Beijing.