Rulon gardner - wrestler

UL_heart_throb

Won olympic gold in the 2000 olympics, defeating Alexsandr Karelin, the greatest Greco-roman wrestler of all time. He got a bronze in 2004.

Retired from wrestling and took a mma fight in pride against Yoshida, the pride of Japanese judo. Won a UD and put a very convincing beat down on yoshida.

Retired from sport and put on a huge amount of weight. Ballooned to 474 lbs. Went on the reality tv diet show "America's biggest loser" and lost 173 pounds before quitting the show unexpectedly.

This year he made another run for the Olympics but could not attend the play off because he could not make weight, claiming he was about 5lbs off the 286 lb limit.

Very interesting guy.

"When Gardner was in elementary school, he was injured during a class show-and-tell, when he was punctured in his abdomen with an arrow.[6]

In 2002, Gardner went snowmobiling with some friends in the mountains surrounding Star Valley, Wyoming. At one point, he became separated from the group. During his efforts to regain his composure and regroup, he fell into the freezing Salt River with his snowmobile. Unable to move any further, Gardner decided to build a shelter and wait for a rescue team. He remained stranded for the next 18 hours. After several hours in his makeshift shelter, he stopped shivering, which led him to believe that he was dying. When he was eventually rescued, he was experiencing hypothermia and severe frostbite. Due to the physical damage, a saw had to be used to remove his boots. The harrowing experience cost Gardner the middle toe on his right foot, which he keeps in formaldehyde in a jar in his refrigerator, to remind him of his mortality.[7][8] He told his story on a first season episode of I Survived....

On 24 February 2007[9], Gardner and two other men survived a crash when a light aircraft he was traveling in crashed into Lake Powell, Utah. The men swam an hour in 44 °F (7 °C) water to reach shore, and then spent the night without shelter. None of the three sustained life-threatening injuries."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rulon_Gardner#Personal_tragedies

Chris89

oh ****

Peetrik

Yeah but did he shoot 11 holes in ones on his first and only time playing golf and was his birth heralded by a double rainbow?!?

Kim Jong-Il 1 - 0 Rulon Gardner

Jason McCabe

Now that's some life

Barry.Oglesby

He was in the Bee Gees for a while too

wrestlingdad

in all seriousness - he is a very inspirational - i read his book - he had learning difficulties in school - made it and graduated from university - and inbetween the olympic years he lost 3 toes in a skidoo accident when he was trapped in freezing cold water and had to have toes amputated which really affected his balance - and still got a bronze after that ! - would reccomend his book - see amazon

Dermighty

Barry.Oglesby wrote: »

He was in the Bee Gees for a while too

He was the train station that Staying Alive was filmed in.

Barry.Oglesby

I need that book but Amazon isn't being helpful Wrestlingdad. Can you remember it's name? I might be able to get my library to get it.

Dermighty

Barry.Oglesby wrote: »

I need that book but Amazon isn't being helpful Wrestlingdad. Can you remember it's name? I might be able to get my library to get it.

Barnes & Noble have it here, not sure if they ship internationally.

As an aside, from the blurb about the book: he defeated the Russian Alexander Karelin — three-time Olympic champ, undefeated and unscored upon for a decade before his match with Gardner

Karelin must have been a f*cking beast, Gardner too!

Jarren

Barry.Oglesby wrote: »

I need that book but Amazon isn't being helpful Wrestlingdad. Can you remember it's name? I might be able to get my library to get it.

www.bookdepository.co.uk/search?searchTerm=Never+stop+pushing+&search=search

Jason McCabe

Karelin is like a comic book action figure.

Absolute monster.

Dermighty

130kg...I can only aspire to such optimal fatness...Stuck at a paltry 105kg

wrestlingdad

hi barry,

yeah, the book is titled ' never give up ' - good read would reccomend - although i would suggest ' a season on the mat' dan gable - to inspire you and the lads to train hard - he also overcame a lot of adversity in his early life

Barry.Oglesby

Holy ****,

listen everyone, not about Rulon Gardner but about that Dan Gable book. It's a must read. You think you train hard and then you read what Dan Gable used to do before breakfast. The best thing is that you get this sense that he wasn't shouting and roaring about it, he was just getting up out of bed and starting every day like he was going to try to squeeze 25 hours in.

I loved that book!