Throughout the summer time, in a sequence referred to as Hometown Hopefuls, NBC is spotlighting the tales of Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls from all fifty states, in addition to Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, as they work in the direction of the chance to symbolize their nation on the Paris 2024 Games subsequent 12 months. We’ll study their paths to their sports activities’ largest stage, and the cities and communities which have been formative alongside the way in which. Visit NBCSports.com/hometownhopefuls for extra tales from throughout America as these Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls put together for Paris in summer time of 2024. In this version of the sequence, a particular historic lookback for considered one of North Dakota’s not often mentioned Olympic champions.

At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, American wrestler Rulon Gardner surprised the world. Gardner was competing within the Greco-Roman heavyweight remaining in opposition to Aleksandr Karelin, the defending champion from Russia. Karelin had gained gold on the previous three Olympics: Seoul in 1988, Barcelona in 1992, and Atlanta in 1996. But in 2000, Karelin fell brief. Gardner prevailed, profitable gold and immediately turning into a legend.

Gardner, who grew up because the youngest of 9 kids on a dairy farm in Wyoming, began wrestling when he was simply six years outdated. His hometown hosted a wrestling camp every year, kickstarting his curiosity within the sport. Gardner continued wrestling by way of junior excessive and faculty, and after his large upset in 2000, returned to the Olympics in 2004 in search of to defend his title. Although he wasn’t in a position to clinch one other gold on the Athens Games, he did take house one other medal – this time, bronze.

And then, Gardner retired.

Perhaps surprisingly, wrestling is the game the place the U.S. has gained its third highest variety of Olympic medals, behind observe & discipline and swimming. And but, for all of those medals, Gardner’s 2000 win was the final time an American took house gold in Greco-Roman wrestling (versus freestyle, by which the U.S. has had far more latest success). But the way forward for American wrestling is shiny, thanks partly to 2 younger athletes who’ve their very own connections to Gardner himself.

On the identical day that Gardner made magic occur within the 2000 occasion that’s now generally known as “The Miracle on the Mat,” a child was born who would go on to turn into a wrestling star. His identify? Cohlton Schultz. Last month, Schultz competed for the United States on the World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. It was his seventh time at this match, and he’s solely 23.

Another American wrestler who made this 12 months’s world crew, Mason Parris, grew up with a signed Gardner poster in his bed room. While Gardner made his mark within the Greco-Roman model, Parris competes in freestyle. These two kinds are related; the first distinction is by which a part of the physique rivals are allowed to assault. In Greco-Roman, wrestlers must maintain their holds on opponents above the waist, whereas in freestyle, rivals can goal the legs. The two types of wrestling have a protracted historical past on the Olympics, with males contesting each because the 1896 Games in Athens. (And even earlier than its induction into the fashionable Olympics, wrestling was contested on the historic Olympics beginning in 708 BC – making it one of many oldest Olympic sports activities.)

The two-and-a-half a long time since Sydney have been difficult for the Olympic champion. He’s confronted two near-death experiences (the primary in 2002, throughout a snowmobiling accident by which he developed hypothermia and needed to have a toe on his proper foot amputated, and the second in 2007, when he crashed an airplane into Lake Powell, Utah and developed hypothermia for the second time); revealed a memoir referred to as Never Stop Pushing: My Life from a Wyoming Farm to the Olympic Medals Stand; and misplaced 173 kilos as a part of NBC’s actuality present The Biggest Loser.

These days, Gardner lives in Utah and works as an insurance coverage agent whereas additionally teaching wrestling at Herriman High School. As for his personal wrestling profession, Gardner could be beginning a brand new chapter. In April 2023, at age 51, he tried to compete within the Greco-Roman heavyweight division on the U.S. Open, but was over the weight cut-off.

“I missed the weigh-ins by 15 pounds, but, being 51 years old, I talked to my sister, who’s a cardiologist,” Gardner instructed Flowrestling on the time. “She was like, ‘Rulon, there’s a chance that you could die tonight.’ It’s like, you know what, wrestling is important, but it’s not worth taking my life for. I’ve gotten healthy. I’m back to wrestling, back to training and I’m going to continue to compete.”

Those competitors plans embody the 2024 Olympic Trials subsequent April, in keeping with Gardner. While the subsequent technology of American Greco-Roman wrestlers work in the direction of their first Games, they’ll have the Wyoming native’s success on the worldwide stage in thoughts. No stranger to a comeback, this might be Gardner’s finest one but.