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SHAREPosted: Sunday August 3, 2008 1:30PM; Updated: =
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August 3, 2008 1:30PM
Catching up with Rulon Gardner |
Story Highlights
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No one expected Rulon Gardner to win a gold medal at the = 2000=20 Olympics -- himself included. Not only was the quiet, gentle-faced farm boy from Wyoming = vying for=20 the top position in Greco-Roman wrestling, he had to take down the = sport's=20 unbeatable man, Russia's Alexsandr Karelin, who hadn't lost = in=20 international competition for the previous 13 years. Karelin's jaw-dropping record -- he hadn't lost a single point = in six=20 years and was a three-time defending Olympic champion -- made = Olympic gold=20 seem impossible. But Gardner had drilled obsessively. He wrestled=20 full-out, no-break matches for hours on end at the U.S. Olympic = Training=20 Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., and lifted weights until his = body=20 became numb. His 1-0 win in overtime of the 130-kilogram = (286-pound) final=20 is considered one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history. "I didn't want to have to look back as an old man and say, 'You = know=20 what, you just didn't do everything,'" Gardner says. "In = wrestling, when=20 you win, it's usually a victory for the team and just a moral = victory for=20 yourself. After I beat Karelin, that's what it felt like. It = didn't feel=20 like I had won the Olympics. Honestly, I kind of expected not to = get=20 it." Gardner is reminded daily of his battles with the Russian -- he = sees a=20 chiropractor regularly in Salt Lake City to treat his continued = neck pain.=20 After Sydney, he picked up another gold at the 2001 World = Championships,=20 becoming the first American in Greco-Roman wrestling to win both = the=20 Olympics and a world championship. Alas, he fell short of = defending his=20 gold in Athens in '04, though he did come away with a bronze = medal. He=20 left his shoes on the mat when finished, signaling the end of his=20 wrestling career. Of course, Gardner has become nearly as famous for his escapes = away=20 from the mat. In February '02, just two months after winning the = worlds,=20 he lost a toe to frostbite after a near-fatal snowmobile accident = in the=20 Wyoming wilderness. (Leading up to the '04 Athens Games, Gardner = kept the=20 toe in a formaldehyde jar in his refrigerator.) Two years after losing his toe and just months before the = Athens Games,=20 he was on a motorcycle heading to wrestling practice when he = crashed into=20 a car, sending him over the handle bars but leaving him with = little more=20 than cuts and bruises. It wasn't until a pickup basketball game = weeks=20 later that he dislocated his wrist with mere days to spare before = the U.S.=20 Nationals. In '07, his tales of survival intensified in drama: He spent = two nights=20 without food or shelter before being found by a fisherman after = his=20 friend's small plane crashed along the Utah-Arizona border. Gardner, along with pilot Randy Brooks and his brother,=20 Leslie, were looking at houseboats from above when their = Cirrus SR=20 22 plane brushed the water and "went from 150 mph to none in about = two=20 seconds," as Gardner told CNN in February '07. "[It] wasn't really = anything I thought about because we were safe," Gardner said. "We = had just=20 survived a plane wreck." He backstroked his way to shore in 44-degree water, dried his = clothes,=20 and helped the Brooks brothers build a shelter out of rocks. The = group=20 huddled to keep warm through the night. Other than suffering minor = hypothermia, the trio made it home -- and with all their toes. Today, the 37-year-old Gardner puts forth his message as a = motivational=20 speaker to schools and corporate groups. (His '05 memoir, Never = Stop=20 Pushing, is a tome of dedication, commitment and personal = drive.). He=20 also hosts nearly 30 wrestling clinics and will soon open a health = club=20 (Rulon Gardner L.A. Workouts) in Logan, Utah. No matter where he = is, what=20 he's doing, or how he's doing it, Gardner has managed to make a = life out=20 of pressing forth. Why? "There's no guarantee in life," Gardner said. "You just have to = do the=20 best with what you have." |
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