Gardner Takes Another Step

Olympic gold medal wrestler Rulon Gardner easily won Saturday as he returned for his first full tournament since losing a toe in a snowmobiling mishap nearly a year ago.

The 267-pound Gardner was in championship form, taking only 1 minute 35 seconds to gain an 11-0 decision over Colombia’s Danis Renteria in a preliminary match.

The Dave Schultz Memorial International Tournament at the Olympic Training Center was to continue today. Gardner said it is one of the first steps toward earning a spot on the 2004 Olympic team.

Gardner, who also wrestled in several matches last year, gained worldwide attention in the 2000 Sydney Games when he beat Russia’s Alexander Karelin in the heavyweight final. Karelin had not lost an international match in 13 years.

The Wyoming wrestler sustained frostbite when he was stranded for 18 hours in subzero temperatures during a snowmobiling trip last February. A series of surgeries and skin grafts, and therapy in a hyperbaric chamber saved all but the middle toe on his right foot.