2012 Olympics.

London has been the goal for Germany’s Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann since before they played their first tournament together in April. If 2009 is any indication, the rest of the world better watch out.

Brink and Reckermann proved a force to be reckoned with in their first season together. In 10 FIVB events, the international circuit’s Tour Champions and Team of the Year played in six gold medal matches, winning four—including July's World Championship—and also took home two bronze medals. Even they didn't expect to do so well so soon.

"It all surprised both of us," 27-year-old Brink says in impressive English. "We tried to build up a new team and tried to develop something. We did not expect such success in 2009. We're just happy with what we did. It shows us we're on the right way."

Reckermann focuses more on what he and Brink can control than end results. "I wouldn't feel less happy now if we didn't win the World Championship but played really well," he says in clear English as well.

Playing well not only led to outstanding team accomplishments, but a significant individual accolade for Reckermann. The 6'7" 30-year-old was recently voted the 2009 FIVB Best Blocker.

"It's a big honor to get these awards, especially a best blocker award when there are guys like Phil Dalhausser and Alison (Cerutti of Brazil) behind myself," he says. "I wouldn't say that I'm a better blocker than Phil, but I didn't elect myself so I'm happy."

Brink and Reckermann have given themselves plenty to be happy about, starting in Stavanger, Norway, where they became the first European team to win the World Championship.

"Normally Brazilian and American teams kick our asses. It was time for a European team to win," Reckermann says with brute honesty. "The reaction from the media and other players, I realized it’s something special and it's good for our sport in Europe."

"It's way above any other tournament," Brink adds. Next to the Olympics, "that's the second-most important tournament you can play in."

Thanks to their presence on the court, proximity to most events, and approach to the game, Brink and Reckermann played at a world class level throughout the season.

"We never make it easy for opponents because we are always there," Reckermann says of his team's in-game mindset. "If they are not focused the entire time, we are there to try and get the two or three deciding points."

It hadn't been a deciding factor in the past, but Brink says living in Germany—and thus not having to travel or adjust to different time zones often—proves advantageous given the FIVB’s schedule.

"We can always go home after every tournament," he says of a luxury American and Brazilian teams don't always have. "It's a big advantage to us Europeans playing on our continent. The years before, we did not make anything out of it, or you could say the other teams were stronger than us."

With a stronger mentality, Brink and Reckermann changed that. Instead of suffering from a letdown after winning the world championship, Reckermann says things became easier.

"We always said it was such a great feeling in our sports life. Maybe the best we have ever had or ever will have," Reckermann says of how he and Brink stayed hot. "We were in a flow."

Teams across the world will undoubtedly gun for the reigning champions' spot atop the podium next season, but Reckermann expects himself and Brink to counter opponents' adjustments by getting better themselves.

"I cannot influence what other teams are doing. I just see where we still have potential," he says, noting an injury to Brink prevented the team from practicing much last off-season. "We are not at our best level, so there are enough things we can try to improve."

Considering Brink comes from a family without a sports background and Reckermann spent much of 2006 wondering if his career was over, it's a marvel they've improved enough to get to this point.

Brink's parents, a chemist and a nurse, wanted Julius and his brothers Benjamin and Florian to play team sports to grow healthy and develop people skills. Despite living in a soccer town where basketball, hockey, and track and field were also popular, Julius chose volleyball when he was eight years old to be like his older brother Benjamin. "I made my first experience in volleyball and I fell in love with it," he says.

Brink soon admired a legend.

"As soon as you get in touch with sand volleyball, in every sport you talk about legends and the characters of the sport, and Karch Kiraly is the main character we have in our sport," he says. "I have some old AVP DVDs I still watch of him and Mike Dodd and Mike Whitmarsh and the American idols."

It made it that much more of a thrill when Brink played in the FIVB’s 2003 tournament in Carson. Among the American teams: Karch Kiraly and Brent Doble. Brink lost his only match and Doble/Kiraly finished ninth, but it brought the game full circle in a sense.

"I just liked the person and the way he played," Brink says of Kiraly. "He was always making his partner better, not too spectacular, very, very solid, and that really inspired me at the time. I would not like to compare myself with him because I definitely think you have to make your own way."

In making his own way, Brink hasn’t veered far from his parents’ footsteps. He still studies part-time; as he puts it, "I think I made the right decision by doing it the way I did."

Reckermann, meanwhile, has spent much of his career hindered by a bad back. After playing with a protective belt for more than a decade, in 2006 he decided it was too much and took a year off.

Six months in, a test showed an inflamed bone in Reckermann's back hadn't healed. "If you see it’s not better after six months, then you know there’s a chance it won’t get better," he remembers thinking.

Three months after the discouraging test, Reckermann started lifting weights and conditioning again anyway.

"It doesn't change if there's a test or not, I just wanted to try," he says. "I wouldn’t give up without trying."

Persistent pain initially put his comeback in doubt, but Reckermann says he started feeling better over time.

"It was not fun," he says with a slight chuckle, now able to smile about the path he has taken. "If you ever experience the emotions when you cannot do what you want, if you come back then everything is relaxed. You're happy just to play again and see how great it is to play the sport and work hard."

Reckermann says he used to get nervous before big matches, for example, but his new perspective since coming back has eliminated much of the jitters.

"This injury helped me see everything more realistic," he says. "The sport is not everything and this helps a lot to be focused on one side, but not too tense on the other side. It helped me find a good center."

With the good center Brink and Reckermann have found in a hurry, they could be headed to London in 2012 with another goal: finish ranked where they are right now.