By EDDIE PELLS
AP Sports Writer
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Olympic champion wrestler Rulon Gardner wants to work with the U.S. Olympic Committee to find a way to provide health insurance to retired Olympic athletes.
Gardner, who retired after his last match at the Athens Olympics, no longer receives health insurance and a $2,000-a-year grant from the USOC because the money is meant to support Olympic hopefuls. Last July, he signed a one-year contract for the benefits, but they were stopped in March because he’s no longer competing.
Gardner said he would like to work with the USOC to find a solution to the problem, not so much for athletes like him, who have become famous and can make a living after retirement, but for the hundreds who retire and don’t become rich or famous.
“I want them to be taken care of, “Gardner said. “I’d like to help them in the future. That’s my goal — it’s to help the Olympic movement and take care of athletes. “
In an interview last week, Gardner told The Denver Post he was skipping an upcoming athletes’ summit as part of the fallout from the USOC’s retirement policy, calling it “a slap in the face. “
USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said the organization’s policy is to funnel funding to athletes who are training and preparing for upcoming games.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Gardner said he had a previous commitment to teach at a wrestling clinic in Montana the day of the USOC summit.
“I’m not angry at the USOC, “Gardner said. “The USOC gave me the opportunity back in 1993 to train, they provided me trips overseas. The last thing I want to do is to show I’m a disgruntled employee or anything like that. I have no animosity toward anyone at the USOC. “
Gardner pulled one of the most stunning upsets in Olympic history at the 2000 Games, winning the gold medal by ending Alexander Karelin’s 13-year international winning streak. Last summer in Athens, Gardner won the bronze medal, and in wrestling tradition, left his shoes on the mat as a symbolic way of announcing he was retiring.
He said he could have delayed announcing his retirement and kept the benefits coming.
“But I love that I retired in Athens, “he said. “I got to leave my shoes on the mat. I’d rather be forthright about it, walk off and say `Thank you.’ “
He plans to teach someday, but for now, he is on the road, doing speaking engagements and wrestling clinics. He has a book, titled “Never Stop Pushing, “coming out in September.
The insurance issue is one dear to his heart, too, because he knows the sacrifices many Olympic athletes make.
“I went from nothing to doing OK, “Gardner said. “But there are athletes who give up 15 years of their life to make the Olympic team, and when it’s over, they don’t have much. I want to look at the long-term aspect of the athletes. “
Gardner said he plans to auction the shoes he left on the mat in Athens on eBay and donate some of the proceeds to USA Wrestling.
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