Real American Hero?
Location: Sydney, Austrailia.
A wrestler that had never won a NCAA championship or even placed in an International tournament had somehow won his way into the finals of the Super Heavyweight Division in Olympics. This wrestler was a pudgy, average-looking American, that no one in the USA had ever really heard of. The American was about to face off with a Russian wrestler that had dominated the sport for over a decade. Alexander Karelin had never lost an International match, he was undefeated in ALL of his matches for the last 13 years, and hadn't yielded a point in over 6 years. To say there was little hope for the American was a HUGE understatement.
After only 6 minutes of wrestling Rulon Gardner became an American Hero. He had defeated the Russian Giant by a score of 1 to 0. As a lifetime wrestler myself, I looked up to him and celebrated in awe as he did something that so few people thought he could do
This sounds like a great story, and it would be only if it had stopped here. Gardner continued wrestling and in the 2004 Olympics he won bronze, and then his life turned for the worst. By 2007, Rulon had ballooned from the once pudgy wrestler at 264 lbs to an astounding 474 lbs.
Again Rulon looked to be against the odds, this time against himself and to try to get back to a healthy weight. He was accepted to join the hit NBC TV show "The Biggest Loser". For 17 weeks, He was an almost unstoppable force. He had lost 173 lbs to get back to 301 lbs. He was someone, like me, that had been in great condition, let himself go, and now was working hard to get back into shape. That is when he did something that I hated to see a "Hero" do; he walked out on the show in the middle of the season. He cited "Personal Issues" as reason for leaving. When the show had its finale 5 weeks later, Rulon was the only contestant that didn't show up.
I grew up playing sports from the age of 5 until I was well into my teenage years, I wrestled most recently at the age of 22, and currently I coach young wrestlers. Seeing someone that I looked up to, in the sport that I love just walk away and quit really bothers me. I don't want the kids that I coach to think it's ok to quit. We are taught from day one that quitting is a bad thing, and from what we see from Rulon Gardner, the American Hero, is that he is a quitter.
Categories: MMA
Tags: wrestling Rulon Gardner Rulon olympics fat Fat quitter quit
Great article Joe....I remember Rulon from the olympics, and didn't watch The Biggest Loser, so I never realized he had gained so much weight...It is a shame to see so much talent go to waste.
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Hey Coach Joe,
I usually agree with you and I might here but I think you might be jumping to conclusions. You are right that it is usually not a good thing. I would not want to say it is always "a bad thing" to quit. It is never a good thing to quit when the reasons are not right, but sometimes there are good reasons. Nothing I have seen in his story tells me that his reasons were bad. He said he wanted to get back to his family and his business. We don't know the complexity of the situation and the time apart may have caused strain on his marriage. He may have had good reasons to go back to his business. He is quoted as saying that he had "issues at home that needed to be addressed." We don't know what those are.
While he could have left because he got beat by a girl, we can't just assume that. It's not like he's been a quitter all his life and this is just another episode. The dude was a good wrestler; he had also lost a ton of weight on the show - you can't do that being a quitter. I say give the guy the benefit of the doubt.
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He came out this week stating that he didn't feel the need to be on the show anymore. He got down to a weight that was 3 pounds heavier than his 2000 Gold Medal Weight.
I had given him the benefit of the doubt when he first quit the show. Citing "Personal Reasons" is something that I can understand. But being such an inspiration to people, including myself, and not showing up for the finale told me a lot about himself.
Saying this, He apparently is trying to make a comeback for the 2012 Olympics... I guess we'll see if he can earn himself back into my favor.
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Pretty Interesting post. Could not be written any better. Thanks for sharing!
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