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Bryan Volpenhein's got the perfect 32nd birthday gift in mind.

Another Olympic gold medal.

The 1994 Kings High graduate will get that opportunity when he heads to Beijing, China, as part of U.S. Rowing's 45-person Olympic roster, which was selected Friday, June 27.

Olympic rowing is Aug. 9-17, and the finals will take place Aug. 16-17 at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park, located in Mapo Town in the Shunyi district of Beijing.

"Of course, that would be awesome," said Volpenhein, whose birthday is Aug. 18. "That would be great. At this level, all the boats are really competitive. You're out here racing as hard as you can, and any boat can win on any given day. The idea is to be on your top performance the day of the finals."

Volpenhein, a 6-foot-3, 215-pounder, is shooting for his second gold medal. He helped the men's eight capture its first Olympic gold in 40 years at the 2004 Athens Games, and will again be back in the eight in one of 13 U.S. crews.

He also was part of a fifth-place crew in the eight in the 2000 Sydney Games.

"I'm excited," said Volpenhein, who mans the seventh seat. "It's cool because it's a different group every time. Every four years is a whole another process. It's exciting.

"We're looking to go over there and do as well as we can," he continued. "It's a new crew, and we just finished selection. Now we're focusing on what we need to do to go as fast as we can and do the best we can when we get over there. We'll race hard and have fun."

Volpenhein nearly didn't get another chance.

He took a year off to attend culinary arts school in Seattle, but returned last spring only to find out he wasn't in as good a shape as he thought he was.

"The initial shock was pretty serious," Volpenhein said. "It took a little while to get back in shape, but now I'm there and I feel pretty good.

"I didn't really retire," he added. "I didn't take a break thinking I'll be back. When I stopped rowing that year, I was totally focused on school. I didn't think about coming back, until it got closer. You got only one chance. It's one of those things I don't want to look back many years from now where I could have gone again and I didn't take it. I figured why not."

Volpenhein's route to the Olympics began in '94, when on a campus visit at Ohio State, he noticed a recruiting flier for the rowing team. And the rest is history.

"I'm very happy with (my career)," he said. "It's been completely unexpected. I had no idea when I started that I'd be going to my third Olympics. That was never in the back of my mind. It's worked out really well for me."

Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5113 or smatthews@coxohio.com.