Todd Rogers in USA Today, 23 May 2012

 http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/london/story/2012-05-23/Todd-Rogers-Phil-Dalhausser-knee-surgery-Olympics/55161346/1

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.

• VIDEO: Todd Rogers' expectations for London

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.