King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Olympic champ Rulon Gardner survives plane crash. The Jack Bauer of the Greco-Roman set. Plus: Ohio State beats Wisconsin.
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Feb. 26, 2007 | When is Hollywood going to get around to the Rulon Gardner movie?
Gardner, a former Olympic gold- and bronze-medal wrestling champion and sort of the Jack Bauer of the sports world, survived yet another life-threatening incident over the weekend, a plane crash into the icy waters of Good Hope Bay in Utah.
Gardner and two others who'd been in the small plane had to swim for about an hour in 44-degree water, then survive the night without fire or shelter before they were rescued by a fisherman, the Associated Press reported.
We don't know it yet, but the fisherman is working for Abu Fayed.
Gardner provided one of the best moments of the 2004 Olympics in Athens when, after his bronze-medal win, he tearfully removed his shoes and left them on the mat in the traditional wrestling symbol of retirement. He's most famous for his gold-medal win over Russia's undefeated titan Alexander Karelin in the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia, one of the greatest sports upsets of whatever century you want to put 2000 in.
In between he got stranded in the Wyoming wilderness while snowmobiling in 2002, losing a toe to frostbite, and he was hit by a car while riding his motorcycle in Colorado Springs a few months before the Olympics in 2004, escaping with cuts and bruises.
Gardner also -- Oscar bonus! -- has a learning disability.
As they say in the movie biz, the story's perfect. Perfect! We're just going to change it a little. We're going to have him win the bronze first, then have the upset over Karelin serve as the climax, followed by the shoes-on-the-mat thing. Love that.
And can we make him a woman? And thinner. And instead of Greco-Roman wrestling, how about we make it a singing competition, sort of an "American Idol" thing, but it doesn't have to be that exactly. Instead of Simon the mean judge can be a woman. And thinner.
So instead of beating the Russian guy -- ugh, so "Rocky IV"! -- she beats an unbeatable singer in the finals. A hot one. I'm thinking Beyoncé, mainly for the page views. Then she tearfully leaves her Manolo Blahniks at center stage! I'm loving this! Are you writing it down?