Rulon Rules

The youngest of nine kids growing up on a dairy farm in Wyoming, Rulon Gardner seemed an unlikely candidate for a gold medal at the 2000 Olympics.

The youngest of nine kids growing up on a dairy farm in Wyoming, Rulon Gardner seemed an unlikely candidate for a gold medal at the 2000 Olympics. But the work ethic he developed milking cows and doing chores from dawn until dusk, coupled with the support of his family and hometown of Afton, Wyo., (pop. 1,437) made him a champion in Sydney, Australia.

The 29-year-old newcomer to the U.S. Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling team—a form of wrestling that emphasizes lifts and throws—wasn’t expected to medal. Nonetheless, he upset Russian favorite and three-time gold medalist Alexander Karelin, nicknamed “King Kong.”

Nearly 3,000 people packed the Star Valley High School in Afton to surprise Gardner via satellite during the victor’s post-Olympic appearance on The Tonight Show.

“Jay Leno asked Rulon what he thought the townspeople were doing now,” former Afton Mayor Jerry Hansen says. “Then he asked Rulon to face the screen, and as the camera panned the crowd, tears streamed down Rulon’s face.”

The underdog came home to a hero’s welcome last Oct. 12. A banner under The World’s Largest Elkhorn Arch on Main Street read, “Home of Rulon Gardner, Olympic Gold Medalist.”

Later, Gardner was disappointed to learn many children couldn’t see him through the crowd. So Gardner, who plans to teach physical education someday, visited all six area schools—giving students high fives and pumping up their dreams. “Halfway through my speech at the junior high, kids were shouting, ‘We love you, Rulon,’’’ says Gardner, who now lives in Colorado Springs, Colo., where the Olympic Training Center is located.

Twenty years ago, Gardner recalls a different reaction. Then a chubby farm boy who struggled with a learning disability, he tried to keep a smile on his face when kids teased him. “I was 125 pounds in the fourth-grade, and kids would call me fatso,” says Gardner, now a 6-foot-3-inch, 286-pound super heavyweight. That changed when his size became an advantage in sports.

Gardner started as a Pee-Wee wrestler, then wrestled in junior high and high school. But his best workouts were on the farm, where he pressed half-grown heifers to the ground to give them shots. By his senior year, he could carry two 100-pound hay bales in each arm.

“My older brother inspired me a to be a better wrestler, a better athlete, a better person,” Gardner says. Reynold Gardner beat his youngest brother for state high school champion in 1988, but Rulon won the title in his senior year, 1989.

“When we wrestled together in high school, we kept trying to come up with new ways to defeat each other. I think this constant competition only made Rulon stronger,” Reynold says.

While at Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, and the University of Nebraska, Rulon Gardner captured championships for the National Junior College Athletic Association and the Pan American Games. Introduced to Greco-Roman wrestling in 1993, he was the national champion two years later and began dreaming of the Olympics.

“I was in the weight room at the high school gymnasium when I met Dave Draney, a former decathlon contender,” Gardner says. “He asked if I was going to try out for the Olympic team. I asked him if training for the Olympics was worth it.”

Draney replied, “Definitely. You should try it.”

Gardner missed the ’96 Olympic Trials due to confusion over weigh-in times, but kept his eyes on the prize. He defeated ’96 U.S. silver medalist Matt Gaffari to earn a 2000 Olympic berth.

Overcoming Tragedy

Gardner’s perseverance has deep roots. When he was 8, his 14-year-old brother, Ronald, died of aplastic anemia, an extremely rare disease in which the bone marrow fails to produce blood cells. The family’s dairy barn burned down the same year. “It was a real hard year for our family, but we stuck together and worked to support each other and keep the farm going,” he says.

The loss of his brother and the deaths of too many young friends from cancer haunt Gardner. A project supported by the Wyoming Cancer Surveillance Program to compare cancer rates in Star Valley communities currently is on hold due to lack of funds. There’s anecdotal information that cancer rates are higher on one side of the valley.

“That’s why I’m starting the Miracle on the Mat to find out why our valley’s cancer rates are so high and raise funds for kids with catastrophic diseases,” says Gardner, who also wants to help Afton build a recreational center.

Gardner already is a successful fund-raiser, collecting nearly $50,000 to take his family to Sydney. “My family and I put on a milk can dinner at the local country fair,” Gardner adds. “That’s a good old country meal of sausage, ham, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and corn cooked up in a 10-gallon milk can.”

Afton residents helped serve the dinners, sponsored a Rulon Gardner Gas Day and autograph session, and sold T-shirts that read, “Rulon Gardner 2000 Olympian.” Draney donated a high-class fly rod to a golf tournament benefit. These efforts raised $15,000, and Gardner borrowed the rest to fly all 16 family members to Sydney.

“After I won we added, ‘Champion,’ to the T-shirt, and it was a lot easier to sell them,” Gardner says. He retired his debt by selling 14,000 T-shirts to fans and several anonymous donors who outfitted every child in the valley.

Facing the Russian Bear

Even with hometown support, Gardner was still a David facing a Russian Goliath at the Olympics. Karelin’s brutal style so intimidates wrestlers that the last two medal contenders at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona rolled over on their backs to avoid letting him mash them into the mat.

Not Gardner. In his first encounter with Karelin at the ’97 World Championships, he faced the Soviet superstar like a gladiator.

“They call him the ‘Russian Bear,’ but if you act afraid in front of a bear, you have already lost,” Gardner says. “So I just showed some backbone and stared him down.”

During that match, the Siberian native threw him to the ground three times, using his signature “reverse body” lift. He locked his arms around Gardner’s waist and flung him over his head—feet first—like a sack of apples.

“I literally flew,” recalls Gardner, who landed on his face twice. Gardner lost 5-0, but learned how to bring down the bear. “My strategy was to rely on my strength and my ability to keep my position to tire him out.”

At the Olympics, Karelin failed at several attempts to lift Gardner, who pressed up against him chest-to-chest, never letting the Russian get leverage to throw him. Then Karelin made a fatal mistake. He broke his hold, giving up his first point in international competition in 10 years.

After six minutes, the match went into a three-minute overtime. With seconds left, Karelin dropped his hands and surrendered. The referee held up Gardner’s hand in triumph. Gardner threw his fist in the air, hugged his coaches, and shook Karelin’s hand. The ecstatic wrestler launched into a cartwheel and somersaulted across the mat as his wife, Stacy, ran past security guards to give her husband a big hug.

Reaping What You Sow

Reynold explains his brother’s victory biblically. “Rulon understands the law of the harvest—as you sow so shall you reap. Growing up on a farm he learned that to harvest a crop, you have to first plant the seed, water, fertilize, and weed it. Rulon went through all the steps, and this was the harvest.”

After Gardner’s win, Afton immediately began planning the October celebration. Nearly 5,000 people turned out for the parade, almost quadrupling the town’s population. Gardner walked through the cheering crowd and was hoisted up on a throne-like chair by former coaches and teammates. He choked with tears at the podium.

Draney offered a prayer before Gardner addressed his well-wishers. Draney, who had to give up his own Olympic dream when he lost a leg to cancer, is now the local physical education teacher and coaches youngsters even though he’s on crutches.

At the end of his speech, Gardner took off his gold medal and hung it around his buddy’s neck. As more than a dozen cameras flashed on Draney, Rulon’s hometown roared its approval.

Karen Karvonen is a freelance writer in Denver.

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