We met Olympic gold medal winner Rulon Gardner in Central Park a few weeks ago. He was in Manhattan to promote the Friendship Games which are taking place in Austria and Holland in next month. For information visit the Web site: People to People (peopletopeople.com). Rulon is an inspirational person and we are glad we met him.
We asked him if it was his goal as a kid to be an Olympic gold medalist. He said, "No. My goal was to survive. I grew up with nine brothers and sisters and I grew up with a learning disability. At school I really struggled. I wasn't as fast, as quick, as smart as the other kids. I had a lot of people and classmates who mocked me and told me I would never go anywhere in life. Having all that limitations that drove me to work that much harder. When I got my high school degree and then chose to go college that determination stuck with me."
We're all wrestlers so we asked him what his high school wrestling career was like. Rulon said, "My high school wrestling career was not the best, I didn't do real well. I lost a lot matches. I was behind my brother until my senior year. My senior year I finally got to go to the state tournament. I won the state championship. All those years of not being the best it only made me want it that much more. My brother was right ahead of me and he won the state championship the year before. All the way until my senior year I never won."
Finally, we asked him if he enjoyed teaching young kids at the Friendship games? He said, "I love it, that is what makes being a teacher and that is why I got my physical education degree. I love to take a skill, an ability that maybe a kid seen or has doubts about and you show them a little bit about the keys of success and that key will actually see it and it will open up the perspective and go out and learn something that will be with him for the rest of his life. We are doing this over in Vienna, and these athletes are coming there and they never really felt the full international experience and you give them the opportunity to see and compete with another wrestler it just opens up your perspective and you think I can do this and become a better wrestler. It all breeds success."
Aside from teaching other kids in the Friendship Games how much are you involved?
We get down and dirty and meeting foreign athletes. A few of the people knew me you also get to meet a volleyball player and basketball player a soccer player. There are thousands of kids who never had that experience and when they see you on TV as a wrestler it may not be their sport but they say man I remember watching that guy on TV I remember hearing about this guy There is nothing like seeing that. They all want to be part of something that can change the world and that is what it is all about. It's not winning medals.
Do you have any kids?
No, not yet. I am not officially retired. That is the next goal to have kids and to start on my first health club in northern Utah. I will start with youth wrestling and share the dream there. I travel during the summer doing clinics. Your coach back home can show you the exact same technique and they can say I told you ever day I showed you ever day but people look at Olympic athletes in a different way. It is not about us showing you, but making you realize what you have right in front of you.
What age were you when you started wrestling?
I was 6 years old. We did pee-wee wrestling and that was four days for a year. Did we do much wrestling? No. The first guy to fall down lost and that was usually me. I had a brother who was 16 months older and we were always so big that they put me and him in the same weight class. I was behind my brother for 17 years, until my senior year in high school. All those years he used to beat me. At that point I got better, and I didn't have to deal with him beating me up I learned a lot about my potential and what you could learn if you just stuck your mind to something.
What was your workout routine when you trained for the Olympics?
We did three weightlifting days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. We would start in the morning around 9 o'clock and we would go for an hour and a half. We did every type of Olympic lift. On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning we would do some type of drilling and live practice. And then every afternoon around 4:30 we would do some sort of drilling activity, and we would wrestle from 4:30 to 6:30. The thing about wrestling even though you are 30 years old, you are still evolving and you think you may know everything because if somebody has a key or a tool that you don't that is going to surprise you and you are going to lose a match. The last place you want to lose a match is at the Olympics or the World.
What was the most memorable award you have received?
Probably the Olympic gold medal. The ESPY award I got in Las Vegas. I got to meet Tiger Woods and some amazing people who came up and said how inspired they were by watching me wrestle. I got Olympic Athlete of the year in 2000, and that meant a lot because I got to see the sport of wrestling get some limelight. People were saying I have that much character, and I would say, not me the whole team has this much character. I was the one representing the heavyweight weight class.
Did you ever have to cut weight?
I did. When I was in high school I was big. I was over 275 pounds. I had to cut about 20 pounds and watch my diet. When I got to the international level and after Sydney we were 296 pounds, they dropped us 10 kilos which is basically 22 pounds. After winning the gold in Sydney at 286 I had to cut to 265. One wrestling practice for us was 10 pounds of water weight. We pushed ourselves to be as strong as we could.
When you were in the plane crash, what was the worst part?
\[I was in a\] Plane crash and a snowmobile accident. I had two life threatening situations. I think the worst part in both of them was to know that physically I had certain limitation on what I could accomplish. There was reality setting in that you can only do so much I could say that I am going to give my all or give my best but then to have nature and not know what it is going to throw at you that is the worst thing about it. You can prepare your mind for a challenge but the end result is what is going to happen how are things going to end up. You live by a code every day and that is to give 100 percent. The unexpected is the scary part When I was in the snowmobile accident I was out side 18 hours in 25 below zero In the plane wreck I was two miles away from the shore in 43 degree waters It took me two hours, I thought that shore was a lot closer. It is not something you can control the unknown is the scariest part.
