A lot of us here at the Tattler had the pleasure of meeting Rulon when one of my best friends brought him to a party last year. His life is nothing short of amazing and I feel fortunate for having a chance to visit with him.
In the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, he ended the 13 year international win streak of the Russian Greco-Roman wrester, Alexander Karelin, and brought home the gold medal. This was one of the greatest upsets in sports history.
In 2002 he was stranded while snowmobiling in Wyoming. He fell into water while trying to walk out, and suffered from hypothermia. He suffered from frost bite and was close to death when he was found. He was told he would lose both of his feet, but made a remarkable recovery and ended up only losing a middle toe on one foot. He even continued wrestling.
In 2004 he was struck by a car while riding his motorcycle and sustained serious injuries, but recovered.
Last week he was flying with two friends in a small airplane that crashed into Lake Powell in Utah.
"The plane went from 150 mph to none in about 2 seconds," Gardner told CNN early Monday morning.Nothing surprises me in regard to Rulon. He is a true American Badass.
Authorities are uncertain of the exact location of the crash, but the three men swam for more than an hour in 44-degree water before reaching shore and then spent the night without shelter, according to the release. "It takes only about 30 minutes for someone swimming in 44 degree water to start suffering the effects of hypothermia, so the fact that they swam in it for an hour, not to mention surviving the plane crash and the night without fire or shelter, is pretty amazing," said Steven Luckesen, a district ranger at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. "If these guys were a cat with nine lives, they just used up three of them."
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