Top 36 Quotes & Sayings by Rulon Gardner

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American wrestler Rulon Gardner.

Last updated on November 25, 2024.

Rulon Ellis Gardner is an American retired Greco-Roman Olympic Gold Medalist wrestler. He competed at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics and won the gold medal in 2000, defeating Russia's three-time reigning gold medalist Aleksandr Karelin in the final. Karelin was previously unbeaten for 13 years in international competition. Gardner won a bronze medal at the 2004 Games.

American - Wrestler | Born: August 16, 1971

Source: Wikipedia

Some people think I have a death wish. I don't have one. I just make mistakes. Bad things happen to good people.

Rulon Gardner

Wrestling pushes me, makes me accountable. It makes me who I am. I never felt I was just a normal person. Then I felt too normal, lazy, sedentary.

Rulon Gardner

I can freestyle for a while, but I'm not an Olympic swimmer who can go two or three miles.

Rulon Gardner

I'm a wrestler with nine toes. I'm a wrestler who has been through a lot of battles. I get to do a lot of motivational speaking, and people are blown away and say, 'You never quit. You keep coming back.'

Rulon Gardner

I look at what I have as compared to what I don't have. I have this, I have this, I have this. Thank God for it, and let's move on.

Rulon Gardner

People consider me a hero, but I turn around and look at the military people overseas. They're the freaking heroes. They're the ones putting their lives on the line for America.

Rulon Gardner

People in my life have either supported me or doubted me. The only people I hear are the doubters. So, for me, I look at life, and I don't feel like I have anything to prove, but I have an opportunity.

Rulon Gardner

There's no comparison to competition. You can't tell yourself truly where you're at unless you compete in competition.

Rulon Gardner

If a steer is more than four or five months old, he's too big to wrestle.

Rulon Gardner

I act young, I look old, and I'm crazy to be wrestling.

Rulon Gardner

Olympic athletes are a different breed. We're not dealing with million-dollar contracts. We don't do the sport for those deals. We do the sport because we love the challenge, the battle. We love to be an American.

Rulon Gardner

I can't tell what's going on with my feet. They don't say, 'Hey, I'm losing balance.' They give me almost zero feedback.

Rulon Gardner

The first time I ever beat my brother was the end of my junior year. At the end of the match, he tried to throw me, and I took him to his back and pinned him. Instead of simply losing, he bit me in the chest.

Rulon Gardner

Wrestling is just an extension of who I am.

Rulon Gardner

Even when on 'The Biggest Loser', I was out doing back handsprings on the show, throwing dummies on the mat.

Rulon Gardner

America's seen me go from Olympic glory to 'Biggest Loser'. I want to go back to Olympic glory again. It's kind of the American way, rebuilding yourself and remodeling yourself and making yourself more of who you are.

Rulon Gardner

That's why I kept wrestling - I'm too dumb to realize I can't win, so I keep wrestling until I ultimately succeed. I'm pretty dang stubborn.

Rulon Gardner

Being on 'The Biggest Loser,' that's where my fire turned back on. It was time to go out there and take care of business. The old dog has the scent to hunt again, and for me, this dog wants to run again and go with the big guys.

Rulon Gardner

'The Biggest Loser' was only a steppingstone to my comeback, to my ultimate success. It was a vehicle to give me my life back. It was a vehicle to give me my health.

Rulon Gardner

I'm trying to make better choices, and for me, this is kind of a rebirth. If I make the Olympic team? Great. If not, look at myself after eight years and ballooning up almost 200 pounds and getting on 'The Biggest Loser.' You know what? I get my life back again, and that's what truly mattered to me.

Rulon Gardner

People say, 'You're overweight'; they question your heart and character. It's a challenge again, proving to myself and to other people that I'm still here, I still have what it takes.

Rulon Gardner

Everything is work on the farm.

Rulon Gardner

When I started out on 'The Biggest Loser,' for me it was kind of embarrassing to be on national TV and go from this wrestling icon, this Olympic gold medalist, to being on 'The Biggest Loser.'

Rulon Gardner

You just try to make the best decisions you can. You just take life as it comes to you and do your best.

Rulon Gardner

I don't have all this money people think Olympic athletes have.

Rulon Gardner

Some people are just naturally good. I always found ways to become good.

Rulon Gardner

As the youngest of nine on a dairy farm, life was never easy. We'd get up and milk, haul hay, change the pipe, then go to school, wrestling practice, and come home and milk all over again.

Rulon Gardner

My favorite part of Wyoming is as soon as I hit the border. I'm home, where life is good.

Rulon Gardner

For me, back in Sydney, it was just being there and going out and beating Alexander Karelin, 13-time world champion and Olympic gold medalist. It was everything for me.

Rulon Gardner

Ultimately, I didn't look at 'The Biggest Loser' as being my defining moment. I wasn't there to compete and win the money. I wasn't there to win 'The Biggest Loser.' I was there for my health.

Rulon Gardner

There is enough reality in my life, so I try not to read things that have too much stress.

Rulon Gardner

I grew up on a farm and I always learned when you work you go forward, you don't stop and say, well, I'll take a break. You always go forward and get the job done.

Rulon Gardner

Every day I turned a 'you can't' into a 'you can.'

Rulon Gardner

How do you beat an individual who hasn't been beaten in 13 years? With the help of others.

Rulon Gardner

We were taught instead of just reading about life we needed to go out and live it.

Rulon Gardner

In high school, I didn't get the chance to wrestle varsity until my senior year because I had an older brother who was better than me.

Rulon Gardner