ATHENS – It doesn’t matter what Rulon Gardner does in these Olympics, or for the rest of his life, because he will forever be attached to the afternoon of Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2000, the day he attached himself to an unbeatable wrestling machine and wouldn’t let go.
Aleksandr Karelin still shadows Gardner, and will until the day Gardner takes off his singlet, walks away from Greco-Roman wrestling and heads back to Wyoming for good.
Karelin was the sport’s undisputed king, a man who hadn’t lost a heavyweight match in 13 years when he showed up for work in Sydney four summers ago, looking to bring home a fourth medal. Karelin was the modern incarnation of Milo of Croton, the ancient Greek wrestler who won six championships, some because his opponents were too terrified to face him.
Then the farmboy from Wyoming showed up. Karelin wrapped his arms around Gardner that day, broke the grip ever so slightly, and that was that. Gardner won the match 1-0. The reverberations were everywhere. The mighty Russian had lost! To a kid from Wyoming!
For four years, Gardner rode the roller coaster of fame. He was on “The Tonight Show.” He was in ad campaigns. Those were the highs.
But he also suffered a snowmobile accident in Febuary 2002, was stranded in the snow for a day and a half and lost a toe. His hometown complained that maybe he’d grown a little too big for his XXXXL-sized britches.
“I’ve heard some of that,” Gardner said yesterday, and he tried to dismiss the sting by switching subjects. Which is understandable. He is back at the Olympics. Karelin is here, too, watching the Games, retired from the sport, a member of Russia’s Parliament. And yet he hovers around Gardner still.
The spectator as a permanent specter.
Gardner has been a good sport about all of this. He came back from a mountain of injuries to qualify for these Games to defend his gold medal. He needs two more victories today to get there, starting with a match against Georgiy Tsurtsumia of Kazakhstan. And even if he does, there is one thing he understands: He will never outrun the single greatest moment of his life.
You don’t think so? Yesterday, Gardner’s wife and brother were wandering the upper floor of the wrestling hall, when they spotted a familiar face, stopped him, and asked if he would take a picture with them.
Aleksandr Karelin was puzzled by the request. But he took the picture anyway.