Rulon Gardner

Rulon Gardner is, for me, one of the purest underdog stories in sports. A dairy-farm kid from Afton, Wyoming, he walked into the 2000 Olympic final against Aleksandr Karelin, a man unbeaten internationally for thirteen years and widely considered unbeatable, and quietly took him apart for gold. That upset still gives me chills. He added a bronze in 2004 and survived genuinely harrowing brushes with death afterward, which only deepens the legend. What I admire is that he reached the summit not on flashy talent but on stubborn, grinding resilience. That kind of unkillable persistence is rarer than gold medals, and it earns my full respect.

Name (English)

Rulon Gardner

Name (Japanese)

ルーロン・ガードナー

Reading

るーろん・がーどなー

Born

August 16, 1971 (age 55)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Leo / Boar

Origin

Afton, Wyoming, United States

Height

187 cm

Occupation

amateur wrestler / mixed martial arts fighter

High school

Star Valley High School

University

Brigham Young University–Idaho

• Official sitehttps://www.rulongardner.com/
• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/rulon.gardner/
• Xhttps://x.com/rulongardner
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rulon%20Gardner
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AD%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%82%AC%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89%E3%83%8A%E3%83%BC
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q724193

Tags

• Wyoming
• amateur wrestler
• mixed martial arts fighter

Last updated

2026-06-20

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.