LONDON OLYMPICS
Medal misstep
Defending gold medalists Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser lose their edge in London and Sean Rosenthal and Jake Gibb miss a chance at a medal after being upset by Latvians in the quarterfi nals
TUMBLING TOWER: Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers were knocked out of the London Olympics, fi nishing in 9th place. 2012 OLYMPICS REVIEW —
MEN’S BEACH VOLLEYBALL • Medal Winners — Gold: Julius Brink-Jonas Reckermann (Ger- many), Silver: Alison Cerutti-Emanuel Rego (Brazil), Bronze: Martins Plavins-Janis Smedins (Latvia) • Rest of the Field — 4th: Reinder Nummerdor-Richard Schuil (Netherlands), 5th: Jake Gibb-Sean Rosenthal (USA), 5th: Pedro Cunha- Ricardo Santos (Brazil), 5th: Grzegorz Fijalek-Mariusz Prudel (Poland), 5th: Daniele Lupo-Paolo Nicolai (Italy), 9th: Phil Dalhausser-Todd Rogers (USA), 9th: Jonathan Erdmann-Kay Matysik (Germany), 9th: Adrian Ga- vira-Pablo Herrera (Spain), 9th: Jefferson Bellaguarda-Patrick Heuscher (Switzerland), 9th: Sebastian Chevallier-Sascha Heyer (Switzerland), 9th: Aleksandrs Samoilovs-Ruslans Sorokins (Latvia), 9th: Tarjei Skar- lund-Martin Spinnangr (Norway), 9th: Serguey Prokopyev-Konstantin Semenov (Russia), 17th: Petr Benes-Premysl Kubala (Czech Republic), 17th: Josh Binstock-Martin Reader (Canada), 19th: John Garcia-Thomp- son-Steve Grotowski (Great Britain), 19th Penggen Wu-Linyin Xu (Chi- na), 19th: Igor Hernandez-Jesus Villafane (Venezuela), 19th: Freedom Chiya-Grant Goldschmidt (South Africa), 19th: Kentaro Asahi-Katsuhiro Shiratori (Japan), 19th: Clemens Doppler-Alexander Host (Austria) • Summing up the U.S. Performance — Disappointing all the
way around. The defending gold medalists, Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser, weren’t at their best when facing Italy’s Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai in the round of 16, and the Italians scored the upset to knock the medal favorites out of the tournament with a ninth-place fi nish. It wasn’t a complete surprise. Dalhausser-Rogers had a rough year with health and injury issues, and Lupo-Nicolai, who have a very similar style of play as Dalhausser-Rogers, had beaten them twice
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previously this year. The second American team, Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal, looked to be in a great position to medal after winning two FIVB tournaments (Rome and Gstaad, Switzerland), taking silver in another (Berlin) and fi nishing third in Klagenfurt, Austria, right before the Olympics. Their road to the semifi nals looked very good when they drew 17th-seeded Martins Plavins and Janis Smedins from Latvia, a team they had beaten in Klagenfurt less than two weeks before. But Gibb and Rosenthal caught them on a roll. The Latvians are two modest sized guys (both are 6-3) who have outstanding skills. When Plavins and Smedins are on, they’re tough, and they were both on at the Olympics – they ended up taking the bronze – and a week later at an FIVB tournament in Poland, where they won the gold. • What Dalhausser said — “I’m bummed. Obviously I would have liked to have medaled here again. We were outplayed and on this tour, you have one bad match and you could be going home. We had a bad match and they played well.” • What Gibb said — “I felt the whole way through like we were go- ing to pull it off. I felt like we were going to come back when we were down 7-3. I don’t know what happened.” • Expert analysis by Mike Dodd (Coach of Gibb-Rosenthal, Olympic silver medalist in 1996) — “Going into the Olympics the expectations were high for both U.S. men’s teams. Todd and Phil had the advantage and burden of being the defending Olympic gold medalists and a certain mystique of being unbeatable when they were playing their best. Sean and Jake were as hot as any team in the world. I felt we would be on that podium and actually had a great chance for an all-American fi nal. The 2012 Olympics will be remembered as a disappointment for the men, but I have no doubt that with the right partnerships and preparation, we will return to the podium in 2016 and continue our tradition of excellence.”
PHOTO: ANDREW WEBER / U.S. PRESSWIRE
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