2008 Olympic Gold Medalists

2008 Olympic Gold Medalists
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Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Todd Rogers & Phil Dalhausser at FIVB Prague, Czech Republic 24-27 May 2012

  FIVB web page

Day, Date, Time in Prague, Czech Republic  :

Todd Rogers in USA Today, 23 May 2012


As part of USA TODAY Sports' "100 Olympic hopefuls in 100 Days" series, prospective U.S. Olympians give their thoughts on the Games in their own words.

Todd Rogers and teammate Phil Dalhausser know exactly what they need to do to win a gold medal.
They've got it down to what training they need to peak at the right time to how long they will stay in the Olympic Village. After all, they were the men's beach volleyball champions at the 2008 Beijing Games.


But gold in London is far from a guarantee.
Rogers is still recovering from surgery on a torn meniscus in his left knee that had been plaguing him before tearing it severely last August. He and Dalhausser enter the Olympics ranked No. 2 behind Brazil's Emanuel Rego and Alison Cerutti.
Now 38, "The Professor" approaches what he says will be his final Olympics.

We were in Finland, late August. In the finals I reached for everything to jump as high as I could and felt just this (rip), landed and was like, 'OK that really hurt,' concernedhat it was my ACL. … They said no, you tore the meniscus a little bit more than it had been previously torn and then it bent over, which is called a bucket tear. It was pretty painful, so I couldn't walk.

I really didn't not train. I took the weekend off after the surgery, had it on a Friday, and literally on Monday it was you're doing all kinds of rehab. I wasn't doing ballistic training or plyometrics or anything, but I was doing three hours Monday through Friday with my PT. They were crushing me.

The first week we'll stay in the village. We get there about four or five days before opening ceremonies. We'll stay there for about a week or so. I don't know if you've heard all the rumors or what not, but they're all true. It's insane.

I can't remember the exact numbers, but it's like 50 percent of the people are done within three or four days. They've done their 100-meter dash for the first go-round and got their butts kicked. They were just happy to be there, and now basically after four years of training and focusing and not doing anything other than (that), they go absolutely crazy.

Everything is a little closer in London. In Beijing, we were going to go to a basketball game one day. The basketball game was at 10 o'clock at night. There was a 45-minute drive there and obviously a 45-minute drive back, so I was looking at it all, 'Gosh, we've got to leave here at 8:30. We're not going to get back until one o'clock in the morning.'

I've met a lot of those guys in the gym, working out with them, Kobe and a couple of the other guys. I mean I'm not tight with them by any means, but I would like to go and support them . A lot of those guys came to the beach volleyball venue and watched and they enjoyed it, so we'll see. I would love to go to one of those.

We're talking about doing something with Paul Pierce, maybe do a photo shoot and then maybe play hoops and then play some beach or something like that. I imagine some of those guys, they're not going to be very good right away. But if you give them a year or two, I can see them being pretty frightening.

I would love to go to the Olympics, win the gold again, be able to play with Phil next year and capitalize on that, the sponsors and tournaments and exhibitions and all that kind of stuff. 

I never say I want to the 'R' word, 'retire,' because you never know. At some point in time it will become a fiscal thing, where it's like, is it worth my time, going out there?

I don't plan on playing in Brazil in 2016, so Phil will need to find another partner.

I could see myself playing with someone else, but I don't think I really want to unless you have a huge sponsor that is basically saying, 'Hey, I got half a million dollars here, want to roll with it?' Then it's kind of tough to say no.

The real question is, 'Do I want to remain in the beach volleyball world?' It would be tough, probably, for me to say no to if we won another gold medal. Just because you're always known as beach volleyball gold medalist no matter what you do. Even if I was a businessman, that's still going to be a moniker on my name. But we'll see. If I stay in it, great. I love the sport. I want to do what's best for the sport and if not, I'd be OK with that too.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Beach Volleyball @ 1000 Frames per Second,with Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser



Sunday, May 6, 2012

Rogers and Dalhausser retain Shanghai Grand Slam title

Rogers and Dalhausser retain Shanghai Grand Slam title  

Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser show off their gold medals after winning the Shanghai Grand Slam, which they also won last year
     
 
 Shanghai, China, May 6, 2012 – Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser needed to be at their best on Sunday to retain their Shanghai title with a 2-1 (21-19, 22-24, 15-11) victory over fellow Americans Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal in the final of the Shanghai Grand Slam presented by Jinshan Xinchen. “I thought we played really well,” Rogers said. “Jake and Rosey played very well, but I was very pleased with how we handled them.”
The gold medal is their second of 2012 after they beat another U.S. team in the final of the Brasilia Open. That time it was Mathew Fuerbringer and Nicholas Lucena who fell to the 2008 Olympic champions. 
“It was good to see another American team in the final and it happened in Brasilia as well,” Rogers stated. “We’ve got three American teams playing at the top of the world.”
For Gibb and Rosenthal the silver medal represents their best result on the FIVB SWATCH World Tour since they finished third at the 2011 Quebec Open. 
“They played great and they really just sided-out great,” Gibb said. “We can’t beat them if they side out that well. They played great and we can’t take anything away from them.”
Pedro and Marcio Araujo win bronze medal
Pedro and Marcio Araujo finished with the bronze medal after a tightly contested match against Bruno and Benjamin, who were aiming to finish third having had to go through the country quota and qualifications rounds.
It appeared as though Benjamin and Bruno were on course to achieve that feat after they won the first set, but Pedro and Marcio kept them at arm’s length in the second and sneaked the third to win 16-21, 21-15, 15-13.
For Pedro it was his fifth medal at the Shanghai event, after he won gold in 2007, 2008 and 2010, and silver in 2009. Marcio previously won gold in 2006 and silver in 2007. 
“It is great and very important for us because it means we avoid the country quota matches in Prague,” Pedro said. “We want to be in the main draw at every tournament. I love to play here because it is where I won my first professional title and it is very nice to be back here.”
The 2012 FIVB SWATCH World Tour is scheduled over a seven-month period and features 12 tournaments for both men and women. For the men, the season starts in April in Brazil and ends in October in Morocco. 
The $600,000 Shanghai Grand Slam is the second of nine double gender events and the winning pair share a $43,500 purse. 
It is the ninth straight year in which Shanghai has hosted an FIVB SWATCH World Tour event. 
Following the completion of the Shanghai Grand Slam, the World Tour now moves on to China’s capital for the Beijing Grand Slam (May 8-13).

 http://www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVolleyball/Competitions/WorldTour/2012/Event/viewPressRelease.asp?No=34462
  

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Dalhausser/Rogers win third straight gold at 2012 Brasília Open

Dalhausser/Rogers win third straight gold at 2012 Brasília Open
In the all-American gold medal match Sunday, Phil Dalhausser, right, fires the Mikasa over the Swatch net and block attempt by compatriot Matt Fuerbringer, helping Dalhausser and Todd Rogers capture their third straight Brasília Open title.
Brasília, Brazil, April 22, 2012 - Maintaining their steady composure under pressure and relying on their normal consistent play in spite of temperatures that hovered above 32C, Olympic champions Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers won the battle of American teams over compatriots Matt Fuerbringer/Nick Lucena in Sunday’s internationally televised men’s gold medal match at the $380,000 Brasília Open, the season-opening event of the 2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour.
In the finale that pitted two teams that know each other very well in front over an overflow centre court crowd of over 6,000 enthusiastic fans, USA’s top-seeded Dalhausser/Rogers controlled the gold medal match from start to finish over their fourth-seeded compatriots Fuerbringer/Lucena, earning their third straight Brasilia Open title, 21-17, 21-18 in 44 minutes. Dalhausser/Rogers split $30,000 for winning the gold medal while Fuerbringer/Lucena received $21,000 for the silver.
“We love playing in Brazil, we love playing Americans and we love winning in Brazil and it certainly showed this week,” Rogers said. “We had a tough week, especially losing in the second round and having to come back in our first tournament of the year and me coming off a serious knee injury. In the second set I was tired and made a couple of mistakes and they got back in the game. We had a long way to go to win the title, including beating four teams from Brazil, which isn’t easy, and we had to play nine games in the tournament which doesn’t happen often. We know Matt and Nick so well we have a lot more rallies than against most opponents, but I can say any questions I had about our off time from the World Tour are gone.”

It was the 13th time in the history of the FIVB SWATCH World Tour that two teams from the United States played for gold. The last time was July 24, 2011 in Quebec, Canada when the same two teams met with Dalhausser/Rogers also victorious. It was also only the fourth time in 34 FIVB events held in Brazil and first since 1991 that there was an all-USA gold medal match.

Brasilia was the first tournament for Dalhausser/Rogers since Rogers injured his knee last August in Aland, Finland, with Rogers showing no ill effects from the surgery in Brazil. After losing in the second round on Thursday, Dalhausser/Rogers won seven straight matches to finish the Brasília Open with an 8-1 record. Fuerbringer/Lucena lost in the third round on Friday and ended with a 6-2 record. On the FIVB SWATCH World Tour, Dalhausser/Rogers now have a 6-1 record against Fuerbringer/Lucena. This was the third time the two teams have met in a FIVB gold medal match and Dalhausser/Rogers have won all three.
USA’s Dalhausser/Rogers, the 2008 Beijing Olympic champions, were playing in their 50th FIVB SWATCH World Tour event as a team making it to the final four for the 39th time. They have now played in 29 gold medal matches, winning 22 of them. Individually, 38-year-old Rogers has played in 97 FIVB events and Dalhausser has 53 on his resume. They have made the final four in all four of their appearances in this event with three gold medals and one fourth place as they join the rest of the field in the quest for a spot in the 2012 London Olympic Games.
USA’s Fuerbringer/Lucena have played in 24 World Tour events as a team and have reached the final four five times without a gold medal but they do have two silver medals to their name. Their best previous finish in Brasilia was a fifth place last year. Fuerbringer has played in 61 FIVB events and Lucena has been in 35.
USA vs. USA by sets
Setting the tone early, Dalhausser blocked Lucena’s kill attempt in the first set and the only tie was at 1-1 as Dalhausser/Rogers made few errors and scored on several blocks and cut shots by both players. Fuerbringer/Lucena did mount a rally to close to 15-13, but the Olympic champions pulled away from there to win the set that ended with a serve by Lucena that went long.

The second set was closer in a set of runs, tied at 6-6 when Dalhausser/Rogers ran off three straight points, only to see Fuerbringer/Lucena come back with two points of their own. The last tie in the set was at 12-12, when Dalhaausser had another of his massive blocks followed by a Rogers poke cut shot for a point and they rallied for four points. After several long rallies which seemed to wear on both teams in the heat, Dalhausser/Rogers led 20-16 before another by Fuerbringer/Lucena closed it to 20-18 before the set and match ended another colourful Brasília Open when Lucena’s serve went long
Brazil vs. Spain bronze medal match
In Sunday’s bronze medal match, Brazil’s third-seeded Ricardo Santos/Pedro Cunha pleased their packed-house, home-country fans on centre court by defeating Spain’s fifth-seeded Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera, 21-18, 21-14 in 39 minutes. The first set was played very close up to 12-12 before the Brazilians pulled ahead by two points with strong play at the net by both Ricardo and Cunha. In the final set, Cunha started the Brazilian roll and he and Ricardo never trailed and there were no ties as the closest Gavira/Herrera got was 5-4 before the Brazilians took off and kept a four to five point margin until they scored the final two points for the seven-point victory margin. Ricardo/Cunha split $15,000 for the bronze and Gavira/Herrera received $11,200 for their fourth place finish. Both teams finished with 4-2 records in this event.

It was the first meeting between the two teams, but not between Ricardo and Herrera. Herrera, playing with Javier Bosma, lost to Ricardo and Emanuel Rego in the gold medal match at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
“It is very important for our team to start the international season with a podium placement,” said Ricardo. “The FIVB SWATCH World Tour is our top priority this season and with this result we are close to achieving our biggest goal of representing Brazil in the Olympics. We earned important points, which will improve our position in the ranking and that will help us in the next tournaments. I am glad as we are having the results we expected.”
Brazil’s Ricardo/Cunha, both veterans, were playing in only their sixth FIVB SWATCH World Tour event together and made it to their third final four. Ricardo has played in 177 FIVB tournaments with 53 gold medals while Cunha has played in 87 tournaments overall with eighth gold medals, including two since forming the partnership with Ricardo. This was the team’s first bronze medal.
Spain’s Gavira/Herrera were playing in their 33rd world tour event as a team and they now have 11 final four appearances but are still striving for their first FIVB gold medal. This was the second event back for the team as Herrera injured his knee last July in the grand slam in Gstaad, Switzerland and returned for the last event of the season where the team had a fifth place finish. In two previous tournaments here, they finished ninth both in 2010 and last year.
Brazil’s big beach history
Brazil has staged a FIVB SWATCH World Tour event every year since the start of the international series for men in 1989 and women in 1992. This was the 34th men’s event and 29th women’s tournament on the FIVB SWATCH World Tour held in Brazil. It was also the 14th time that the FIVB SWATCH World Tour had its season-opening event in Brazil and fourth consecutive year the tour came to Brasília.

Road to London
Nearly 140 teams from 35 countries were part of this year’s The women’s competition ended Friday with China’s Chen Xue/Xi Zhang defeating Brazil’s Maria Antonelli/Talita Antunes for the gold medal. With the season-opening event on the 2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour calendar in Brazil, the road to the 2012 London Olympic Games has resumed as 16 of the 24 teams in each gender will be determined through year-long Olympic rankings on the FIVB SWATCH World Tour. This event was the first of nine double-gender events on the 2012 world tour schedule. Beach Volleyball at the London Olympic Games will run from July 28 to August 9.

Busy schedule ahead
After the Brasília stop, the 2012 FIVB SWATCH World Tour continues with events on four consecutive weeks. The genders split venues next week for open events with the women in Sanya, China and the men in Myslowice, Poland. Following those events will be consecutive double-gender grand slam events in Shanghai, China (April 30-May 6) and Beijing, China (May 7-13) and a men’s event in Prague, Czech Republic (May 22-27).

Friday, January 20, 2012

Winter Beach Bash Event

If anyone is in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area on February 25th, come check out the Winter Beach Bash I will be playing in. If you want to go, here is the link:


Should be a blast. Phil and I will be playing against and with Steve Vanderwerpe and Evan Engle. Kerri Walsh and Brooke Hanson will be playing with and against Kathryn Babcock and Chrystal Engle. Check out the surrounding stuff we will be doing as well.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

2012 Schedule

Happy New Year !   
Todd's 2012 Schedule can be found on his webpage (subject to changes).