Going for the Gold

I know the Olympics are over, but today, I saw an Olympic Champion. As I was waiting to cross the street downtown, I stood next to Rulon Gardner, the 2000 Gold Medal winner in Greco wrestling of the Sydney games. (Okay, so I wasn’t actually standing next to him. He was about 10 feet away and there was someone in between, but still. He was within earshot.) Boy, is that man HUGE! His chest is just MASSIVE. Anyway, I got all excited because I just remember how cool he was and how awesome it was when he won the gold medal. Here is some little—okay, big guy from Star Valley, Wyoming who comes into the Olympics and beats the unbeatable defender and becomes a champion. As the light changed and we started walking, Rulon and the guy in-between started talking, and Rulon was saying something about how he is a motivational speaker and speaks to tons of kids every year. As I listened to them talk I started thinking about the most recent Olympics in 北京 and about Michael Phelps. I was never a big Phelps fan. Yeah, it’s cool that Phelps won 8 or however many gold medals in Beijing, but really, he is just a guy with really big shoulders and a really big ego. But Rulon Gardner, on the other hand, with his one gold in Sydney, is just a guy with really big shoulders and a really big heart. Personally, I'd rather have a Heart of Gold and not the trophy case full of shiny round things on a ribbon.

Rulon, 加油!!