Perhaps the only benefit of being injured is that it allows Jordan Malone to enjoy a longer off-season than usual.

Plus, the bronze medalist in short track speed skating from the Vancouver Olympics gets to spend most of his summer on his home turf in Denton.

Malone had knee surgery two weeks ago and will need the summer to recuperate before returning to the ice for the next World Cup season. He hopes to return to competition by the end of this year.

 “We went with the option that we predicted that would be better for me in the long run,” Malone said of the surgery, which involves using the middle third of his patella tendon to replace his anterior cruciate ligament. “You extend your off-season by double. It’s been kind of nice.”

The surgery was needed to repair a knee that he injured in an off-ice accident prior to helping the United States team win an Olympic bronze medal in the men’s 5,000-meter relay in February.

Malone, 26, will spend most of this month rehabilitating his knee, then will need about six more weeks before being allowed to return to the ice. Malone will require another five months before doctors clear him to begin skating at full speed.

“It’s something that doesn’t concern me that much,” Malone said about the extended time away from training, which began for his teammates last month. He had a similar gap in training before returning successfully in spring 2009.

In the meantime, Malone said he has enjoyed an extended visit with family and friends in Denton, where he will spend about two months this summer. He lined up a few speaking engagements at local schools to share his Olympic experiences and offer words of encouragement for students.

Malone compensated for a frustrating individual performance in Vancouver by helping the U.S. take bronze in the relay on the final day of the short track competition.

“I would have wanted an individual medal and an individual gold,” Malone said. “But I was able to leave happy. Not satisfied, but happy.”

He experienced similar results a month later at the ISU World Championships in Bulgaria, where Malone failed to advance past the quarterfinals in any of the three individual distances, but anchored the U.S. relay team, which took a silver medal behind powerhouse South Korea.

Malone is in the process of moving temporarily from Salt Lake City, where he has trained with the U.S. team for the past couple of years, to Marquette, Mich., another training hub for the American short track program.

As part of the training program, he will receive free schooling at Northern Michigan University, where Malone said he plans to pursue an engineering degree beginning this fall.

“I want to be an engineer, probably mechanical or electrical,” he said. “I’ve wanted to be an engineer for as long as I can remember.”

On the ice, the long-term goals for Malone remain the same. He is anxious to return for another season of competition, with the hope of earning a spot on the U.S. team at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

“Everything goes back into the same ritual that it has been,” Malone said. “Everybody thinks it’s every four years, but it’s every day for us.”

TODD JORGENSON can be reached at 940-566-6871. His e-mail address is tjorgenson@dentonrc.com.