Rulon Gardner is in Washington, DC, in an effort to try saving Olympic wrestling, and he joined our friends The Sports Junkies on 106.7 The Fan in DC to talk about his efforts.
Wrestling is being cut by the Olympics starting in 2020, so Gardner is trying to rally support for the sport. In addition to talking about saving Olympic wrestling, Gardner shared the story about how he lost a toe in 2002.
Gardner, who won gold at the 2000 Olympic Games and bronze at the 2004 Games in Greco-Roman wrestling, was snowmobiling with friends in Wyoming in 2002 and got separated from the group. As he was trying to get his snowmobile together, he fell into the water and ended up stranded. He spent 18 hours at 25 below zero and believed he was dying before being rescued.
“My core temperature was 80 degrees. My feet were frozen solid. I knew I was dying,” Gardner told The Sports Junkies. “I was foolish that day — I didn’t wear my winter jacket. I had T-shirt, sweatshirt and a fleece top.”
Gardner says he spent from 4:30 p.m. to 10:00 a.m. until the next morning frozen at temperatures between 25-30 below zero.
He was finally rescued and survived the life-threatening ordeal, though he did lose a toe and all feeling in his feet as a result.
Gardner was kind enough to show The Junkies what his nub foot looks like now. Keep in mind he doesn’t have feeling in the foot:
Olympic Gold Medalist Rulon Gardner’s foot.Wow! RT @drabtshirt: Rulon’s nub foot twitter.com/drabtshirt/sta…
— John-Paul Flaim (@GlassJoeJP) May 10, 2013
Aside from the obvious looks of the disfigured nub foot, do you see how big his ankle is? That thing is massive. Gardner has also said in the past that he keeps the amputated toe in a jar inside his refrigerator. Hey, Honey, what we having for dinner tonight, ravioli or the toe?
You can go to the Keep Wrestling in the Olympics site for more information on that mission. You can go here to listen to his interview with The Junkies.
