Wrestling champion strives to inspire
\nNICHOLAS DERASMO, The Saratogian<\/p>\n
GREENFIELD — Rulon Gardner made history at the 2000 Olympic games in a wrestling match that will forever be known as the ‘Miracle on the Mat.’ <\/p>\n
On Monday, the two-time Olympic medalist made a stop at the Greenfield Elementary School. He was there to give a motivational speech, and the students watched him in awe.<\/p>\n
‘I’m here to share my dreams with them and let them know their dreams are obtainable,’ Gardner said.<\/p>\n
Gardner has had to overcome many challenges, including learning disabilities on his route to success.<\/p>\n
‘I was put into special education as a young student,’ he said. ‘My friends would laugh at me because I wasn’t as fast of a reader as they were.’<\/p>\n
The 2000 Olympics finals match was referred to as ‘David vs. Goliath.’ Gardner’s gold medal victory has been called the greatest upset in wrestling history. A true underdog, Gardner beat Alexander Karelin, who hadn’t lost a match in 13 years.<\/p>\n
That was one of the moments from his life that he used to help students Monday realize one thing — dreams do come true.<\/p>\n
About 300 students in second through fifth grades attended the assembly.<\/p>\n
‘Did you ever think about giving up?’ one student asked.<\/p>\n
Gardner replied, ‘Only once, when I retired.’<\/p>\n
The announcement of his retirement at the 2004 Olympics was another memorable moment. Gardner left his shoes on the wrestling mat, as a sign of his retirement after winning the bronze medal match. <\/p>\n
The wrestler grew up in Afton, Wyo., and was raised on a dairy farm. He cites that upbringing as a reason for his success.<\/p>\n
‘I learned responsibilities there that made me strong,’ he said. Gardner use to wrestle his brother, Reynold, to see who had to do the most chores.<\/p>\n
He spoke to the Greenfield Elementary School students about his desires to never give up.<\/p>\n
‘My mother inspired me,’ he said. ‘She gave me the vision to work hard every day.’<\/p>\n
Gardner also told the students of his near-death experience when he was stranded in the wilderness after he had lost track of his friends.<\/p>\n
‘I lost a toe to frostbite,’ Gardner said. ‘The doctor told me I wouldn’t be able to wrestle again, but I told him to just give me a chance.’<\/p>\n
Gardner proved the doctors wrong in 2004 when he competed his second time in the Olympics.<\/p>\n
Many people doubted him when he was growing up, he said.<\/p>\n
‘After I won the gold medal, my friends came up to me and told me they were sorry that they ever doubted me,’ he said.<\/p>\n
Gardner has now dedicated his time to giving motivational speeches and clinics. His autobiography, ‘Never Stop Pushing,’ was published this year.<\/p>\n
He is proud of his accomplishments both on and off the mat, having graduated from the University of Nebraska with a degree in physical education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wrestling champion strives to inspire NICHOLAS DERASMO, The Saratogian GREENFIELD — Rulon Gardner made history at the 2000 Olympic games in a wrestling match that will forever be known as the ‘Miracle on the Mat.’ On Monday, the two-time Olympic medalist made a stop at the Greenfield Elementary School. He was there to give a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2B7Di-tt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}