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Friday, September 29
Gardner doesn't know what to expect after upset
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- Wyoming native Rulon Gardner, seemingly
destined to be America's most improbable star of the Sydney
Olympics, celebrated the night of his life at Michael Johnson's
birthday party -- a surprise guest in every sense of the word.
|  | | Stacy Gardner holds husband Rulon's gold medal after his wrestling victory over three-time Olympic gold medalist Alexander Karelin of Russia in Greco-Roman. |
When Gardner left home in Colorado Springs for the Olympics, few
knew this Greco-Roman wrestler with the 54-inch chest and an
indefatigable work ethic built on endless hours of labor at his
family's dairy farm.
But when Gardner goes home, he may be in for a surprise nearly
as big as his 1-0 victory over the supposedly unbeatable man of
wrestling, three-time Olympic champion Alexander Karelin of Russia.
The whole nation is going to know, or at least will think it
does, this 29-year-old with a sharp mind and a pleasant disposition
that isn't quite "aw, shucks" but is refreshingly real. The man
who now wears the gold that everybody had conceded to Karelin.
The man who ruined Karelin's tomorrow, then found himself on
"Today" talking to a country eager to know much more about
him.
"Even though I didn't think I was going to win, I was going to
work as hard as I could," Gardner said. "If I didn't win, fine.
But if I did, well, it's just incredible."
For those in wrestling, it wasn't difficult to put Gardner's
upset into perspective: It was the biggest in the history of the
sport.
Karelin was unbeaten in international competition, a man who had
lost only once, as a 19-year-old in the 1987 Soviet championships.
A man who gives up a point every decade or so.
Gardner's upset landed him an invitation to Johnson's birthday
party at Planet Hollywood on Wednesday night -- and it possibly
ruined Karelin's retirement party.
Karelin was expected to wrestle his way through an unbeaten,
unscored-upon tournament as always, get his fourth gold medal from
IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch and retire comfortably to his
job as a Russian colonel and a member of parliament.
Now, the man seen as the perfect wrestler -- impossible to beat,
nearly impossible to score upon -- cannot win four golds in a row
even if wins in Athens in 2004.
No, the streak is over, with no protest possible, and Karelin
must decide if, at age 33, there is anything left to wrestle for.
Except, perhaps, to prevent his last match from being his only
international loss.
Karelin said nothing about his plans -- or, for that matter,
anything else. His only known words were a few mumbled in Russian
to Gardner at the end of the match.
And while Gardner didn't quite believe the moment until it
happened, he realized long ago it was possible. He and U.S. coaches
Dan Chandler, Steve Fraser and Rob Hermann studied tapes of Karelin
that showed him slower than before, of being less capable of
hitting his famed reverse body lift and other scoring moves. At
times, he even looked slow and tired.
"Look at his scores," said Fraser, who, with Jeff Blatnick,
won the only previous U.S. Greco-Roman gold medals, both in 1984.
"They're 1-0 and 2-0."
Their great hope, of course, was that Gardner could somehow get
a point and force Karelin to wrestle from behind -- something he
hadn't done in over a decade, especially not in his third match in
a day.
Gardner got that point when Karelin broke his hands on a clinch
early in the second period, the point American silver medalist Matt
Ghaffari could not get in his 1-0 overtime loss to Karelin in
Atlanta in 1996.
With the lead, Gardner could use his strength and stamina he
built up during years on Reed and Virginia Gardner's dairy farm in
Afton, Wyo., milking cows in subzero weather, then lifting
frozen-cold bales of hay to feed them. Not a hardscrabble life, for
sure, but also not an easy one.
"I know it's cold in Siberia (Karelin's home) but it can get to
40 below where I grew up, too," Gardner said. "I don't know if it
can get that much colder even in Siberia."
Maybe that's why Reed Gardner never feared that even Karelin,
the great Karelin, could wear down his son. Not this night, not any
night.
"It's twice a day, 365 days a year, 730 times a year, milking
the cows and taking care of them," said 70-year-old Gardner, the
father of nine college graduates. "There are no days off in the
dairy business. He had his jobs to do and he did them, every day.
He would go to football practice or wrestling practice (at Star
Valley High School), then come home and do his work."
Even if, at the time, Rulon Gardner cursed his fate as being the
youngest of the nine, with no one left at home to help this
all-state football player and wrestler with the daily chores.
"I would go out, as a kid, and I could barely pick up a bale of
hay," he said. "By the time my senior year came around, I was
grabbing four bales of hay at a time, each 100 pounds. Just
grabbing them and walking with them and seeing how physically
strong I could be.
"The reason I think I won is because I work harder than anyone
else, train harder. And everyday I live my life, I do everything I
need to do to put my life in order."
Gardner doesn't know where this upset of upsets will take him.
He planned to go to Athens in 2004, but that might not be necessary
now. He is certified to teach school, just as his wife, Stacy,
does. He has no idea how much money he will make from the nine
biggest minutes of his life.
"I don't know how big a deal this is," he said. "All I know
is that I did tonight what I always try to do, go out and win a
match. It's personal satisfaction knowing I did it. But this isn't
my ultimate goal.
"My ultimate goal is to know that I can do the best that I can.
I don't think money or this can give you happiness. You have to
find happiness from doing your work."
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