Where is rulon

Who overcame odds and won. Two years after the Miracle on the Mat, he got stranded in the wilderness and almost died. He lost a toe to frostbite. He came back and won a second Olympic medal anyway. His audience, tucked away in this sleepy Utah strip mall, stares up at him in awe. Next, Gardner unfurls Got Milk posters, which depict year-old him in front of a cow.

He signs them, hands them out, and poses for photos. Then he pushes open the door and steps outside — out of the past, into the present. His feet ache inside bulging, worn-down Skechers. He grunts as he pulls his plus-pound body up into a disheveled Dodge Durango. Not too long ago, Gardner lived in luxury.

Several years after outlasting Goliath, his spacious mountainside home boasted a foot television and a steam room. The garage and grounds housed a Hummer, a Mustang, a shiny pickup truck, an Audi, a Harley, a Jeep and a boat. Gardner also owned snowmobiles, a jet ski and guns. He spent hundreds of days every year on the road. His life today, however, is not the one he envisioned. He was in the process of downsizing to a modest rental home just off the interstate, 50 miles south of Salt Lake City.

He spent Wednesday morning at a meeting of local businessmen. They convened at a small church across the street from a barren yard, with snow-sheethed mountains rising up nearby.

Gardner arrived in an untucked bluish-gray shirt and gray slacks. He signed in just like the others did. Real jobs, as both an insurance agent and a high school wrestling coach, consumed much of his life.

He chased clients everywhere he went. He gossiped about high school sports in between. He sat through presentations just like the rest did. He joked with and ranted to a few business acquaintances. His pursuit of riches went awry. He invested poorly, and trusted the wrong people. A faulty gym venture and a fraudulent real estate deal led to a multimillion-dollar bankruptcy case. He lost motorcycles, commemorative trinkets, possessions of all kinds. A few years later, his fourth marriage ended just like the first three, in divorce.

Somewhere amidst the fall, he thudded to a low point. You can see what's coming. It's not real. He felt empty, abandoned, stuck. So he turned to a principle that has guided him through life. He would create a lifeline. If nobody would lift him, he would lift himself. Chores would begin immediately after school and end around 10 p. Temperatures would dip below zero. His gloves would get wet. His hands would get numb.

His eight siblings, all older, were his primary friends. At school, a learning disability impeded him. Classmates would snicker as he labored through assignments. When it was his turn to read aloud, his nerves would jangle. He was also the biggest kid in class, pounds in fourth grade. He endured the finger-pointing and mean-hearted jokes. But at times, he felt like he was drowning in them.

But you give everything. And you survive. Wrestling, he eventually realized, could get him off the farm — to college despite a fifth-grade reading level, and to a career as a phys-ed teacher. Beyond that, he worked, and worked, and worked, with zero expectation of reward. The next, he was the most improbable gold medalist in Olympic history, and one of the hottest names in the United States. He met President Bush.

He was invited to the Playboy Mansion. He declined. Afton eventually welcomed him home with a parade. Gardner rolled into town on a tractor, then through the masses and toward the main stage on a throne. He set out to monetize his fame. He traveled the world, sometimes via private jet, often for weeks at a time. As his celebrity soared, his self-esteem and bank balance came along for the ride. The rockstar lifestyle enriched him.

It energized him. It upended his second marriage. It tugged him away from his roots. Family members noticed. In , he told the Deseret News : "Ultimately, my goal is to end up back in Wyoming, to end up with my family. But before he could, his dad passed away.

He leaned back, brought his hands to his head, and gazed up at the ceiling. Nine seconds passed. He shut his eyes briefly. He broke the silence to name five co-workers — three from his insurance company, and two assistant wrestling coaches. Later, we talked briefly via phone with his sister. Deep relationships, at the time, seemed to elude him. He briefly loses his lead, then pulls back ahead and coasts through the final period to a state championship.

He runs to Rad first and gives him a big hug. Here comes Traycee, running in to compete on the same mat. Rulon gives his incoming wrestler a high-five, then high-fives his state champ and match No. This match ends as abruptly as it begins. In the second period, Traycee connects on a headlock and sends his opponent to his back.

The arena explodes as the referee slaps the mat to signal a pin, and Rulon claps excitedly. Herriman High has back-to-back state champs.

Their contingent leaves the mat and the two teammates save their most excited celebration for each other. They share a big hug and run into the tunnel, into the basement level of the arena, to go celebrate.

This is their moment, and he wants to let them have it. After the finals, the arena lights come on and the whole Herriman cheering section swarms the group on the floor. Tournament organizers hold medal ceremonies, one weight class at a time, with wrestlers posing atop the podium with their new hardware. In one photo, egged on by the people around him, Rulon grabs both state champs in playful headlocks, one under each arm. They all smile as he pulls them in tight.

Both lightweights who qualified for States credit Rulon for helping them with the mental aspect of the sport. The two heavier weights point first to the technique they learned from him. Traycee was a heavyweight last season, before cutting down to this year. He didn't even start wrestling until his freshman year of high school and became a state champ his senior year.

He drew a direct line between what Rulon taught him about good positioning and how he was able to throw his opponent in the finals. Knowing that he's the guy that's in the practice room every day that I get to learn from Rulon and his assistant coaches address the team. He pulls a few aside individually and talks to them about being the ones wearing medals next year.

Rulon is sentimental. In that episode of The Biggest Loser where Rulon went bungee jumping, he blew away Bob Harper by telling him shortly before his jump that it was the anniversary of his plane crash into Lake Powell. He jumped anyway. At one point during the conversation about The Biggest Loser , he whips out his phone and calls Moses Kinikini, a fellow contestant on that season.

Rulon calls Moses brother , though he calls a lot of people brother. And he seems fine with the arrangement. I asked him what advice he would give to somebody at a low point right now—a surprisingly apt question less than a month before the initial surge of a pandemic that would kill more than , Americans and send many more to unemployment amid a devastated economy.

Gardner's goal is to get near the weight at which he competed. Walter Iooss Jr. Keep pushing. Myself, right now, my biggest thing is my weight. The one person that can change it is me. Rulon still looks to his old buddy Dremiel Byers for inspiration. The background on his phone is a picture of Byers, still in his singlet, right after Rulon beat him at the U.

To get back to that weight. He hopes now that the high school season is over, he can refocus on himself. Everyone just wants Rulon to be healthy. If I turn my mind on and do it, I'll do it. I make a lot of excuses for myself. And that's wrong. I gotta make some changes. The sun is starting to set. He has a tradition every year on the anniversary where he watches the time pass and reflects on what he was doing, hour-by-hour, on that fateful night. Because the human body and the human mind can overcome anything.

Regain my work ethic. The success I had in wrestling, which I learned on the farm, now I use it in the insurance business and in the wrestling community.

I try to use it to inspire and get kids motivated to come out for wrestling for us. When he looks back with 20 years of hindsight on the match that first made him a household name, he draws inspiration from Karelin. Rulon says one of the images that stands out from that day was in the final second of the match, when both wrestlers knew it was over. He notes the irony, again, of him being a spokesman for safety.

The work continues for the former heavyweight champion of the world. Getting healthy and keeping the weight down. Earning back all the goodwill his initial rise to fame afforded him. Making sure the next 20 years have a lot more ups than downs. It may not always be easy, but Rulon has no plans to quit. Read more of SI's Daily Cover stories here. Coach Matt Vaughn resigned Friday after an investigation faulted him for not taking proper steps to address a possible hazing concern in The fans in Waco stormed in the field after the Bears upset the previously undefeated Sooners.

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Home Olympics. SI Recommends. By AP News. College Baseball. By Associated Press. He has said his goal is to get back close to his wrestling weight of About the same time he was hired as head wrestling coach at Herriman Utah High School.

Top Photo: In this Sept. An Olympic Channel documentary debuting Wednesday, July 22, , chronicles the highs and lows of Rulon Gardner in the 20 years since his stunning gold-medal victory in the Olympics. Topics Agribusiness Russia. Thank you! Please tell us what you liked about it. We have updated our privacy policy to be more clear and meet the new requirements of the GDPR. By continuing to use our site, you accept our revised Privacy Policy.

Article 3 Comments Rulon Gardner is living a quiet life, just the way he likes it. Copyright Associated Press. The film paints Gardner as a kid who struggled with every sport until he found wrestling.

In reality, he won statewide accolades in football and shot put, too. It chronicles his state championship as a heavyweight on the mat, then sends him straight to the University of Nebraska, a farm boy made good. I felt like a traitor. Any time he and Gardner share a frame the obvious question is: How did Rulon Gardner beat this guy? The documentary never quite provides an answer. The closest it comes is to suggest an unfailing determination, a love of the sport.