Beast sets new bar in "girls' sport"
BEIJING (Reuters) - When two friends tried to persuade a teenage Phil Dalhausser to take up volleyball, he ridiculed it as being "a girls' sport".
Not in his wildest dreams did he think he would win an Olympic gold medal and set a new standard in the sport.
On Friday, "The Beijing Beast" showed why he has shot up the rankings to the top of the Olympic podium, slamming down an extraordinary run of blocks to clinch the final with team mate Todd Rogers. The pair beat Brazil 23-21 17-21 15-4.
"Seriously, if they had told me I would be here today, I'd have told them they were absolutely crazy," the 2.06-metre (6'9") player said, stroking the gold medal around his neck.
Swiss-born Dalhausser, who moved to Florida as a baby, was more into tennis and baseball before a girl in his class and a maths teacher managed to coax him into indoor volleyball.
He took to it easily and played college club level but after a while, his knees began to suffer so he moved to the beach.
"I started to try and go professional really just as a way of delaying the real world so I wouldn't have to get a real job," the 28-year-old said.
He had moderate success with his first partner Nick Lucena but after joining Rogers as a last minute injury replacement at the 2005 world championships, things took off.
Rogers, nicknamed "The Professor" because of his intellectual approach to beach volleyball, took Dalhausser under his wing, made him practice more and soon took him on as partner, leaving him to tower at the net while Rogers scampered around in defense.
"Without him I don't know if I'd ever be where I am today," Dalhausser said.
Where he is, there are few people who can touch him.
Emanuel Rego, the elder statesman of Brazilian beach volleyball, said Dalhausser had changed the game with his dominance at the net while Argentina's Martin Conde joked that "It's because of guys like him that I'm giving up."
Dalhausser takes it all humbly and is clearly still amazed to be playing with the greats, let alone passing them.
"I feel like I don't even belong up here with these guys," he said at a news conference with the Brazilian silver and bronze medalists. "Beach volleyball's been very good to me."
(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
