It's the 9:30 a.m. session on the last day of Greco-Roman. Session 9. Time flies when you are having fun and are busy. There is a weird feeling, however. No Americans compete today. We will see some great Greco-Roman action, but it is not quite the same without the red-white and blue out there.    -----------    Rulon Gardner and his final match was a big hit here. There was a huge contingent of American journalists here to see him wrestle, because he had indicated that this was his last tournament. And after he wrestled, won the match, then left his shoes on the mat, it made a major impact.    Within wrestling, we are used to the shoes ceremony to mark the retirement of an athlete. Our fans have seen it before, and we enjoy it tremendously. However, for those unfamiliar with this, the act of leaving the shoes behind was very emotional and impressive. Some were telling me they had tears in their eyes watching him. It was not just the American press that was taken by it all. This morning a Greek photographer was gushing about it all, and telling me with pride the great photos he was able to capture. He spoke with passion about how much he enjoyed Gardner's career and how touching it was for him to witness his last match and how he left his ASICS on the center of the mat.    Of course, Gardner does things his own way. Sitting on the center of the mat is a new twist to the shoe ceremony. Usually, the athlete will bend over and untie his shoes. Ru just sat there in the center of the stage, adding drama to the entire unlacing activity. He is now off doing the interview circuit, spreading the goodwill that has made him more than just a sports story. At one of his press conferences last night, he was asked what it felt like to be a celebrity. Of course, Rulon said he was not a celebrity, just another hard working wrestler who had been blessed to be in this sport. "I'm just an athlete. I am a wrestler. I'm just a kid who grew up on the farm," he said.    Coach Steve Fraser was asked about Rulon's impact on wrestling and was quite emotional about it. "Rulon has meant the world to Greco-Roman wrestling and wrestling in general. He not only a great wrestler, our most accomplished athlete ever, but he is a great person, humble, polite, a fun person. I am going to miss him tremendously, everything about him, his leadership and his friendship, everything he brings to our team."    -------    As we type, I witnessed an interesting match, where two-time Olympic champion Armen Nazarian of Bulgaria almost lost a quarterfinal bout to Japan's Makoto Sasamoto in 60 kg Greco-Roman. Nazarian led 3-2, but with 11 seconds to go, Sasamoto lifted Nazarian high off the mat for a throw. Nazarian countered and Sasamoto went to his back. This one went straight to the video review.    The crowd was whistling in support of the underdog Sasamoto, believing he had scored, or that Nazarian may have touched the legs and must be penalized. Somebody threw a Coke bottle onto the mat. FILA officials reviewed the tape, gave Sasamoto one point for the lift and Nazarian two points for a reversal with exposure, and the match ended 5-3 for the returning Olympic champion. This is a tough crowd, who always seems to be rooting for people to beat the established stars. This outcome was jeered loudly. Nazarian continues his quest for another gold.    ----------    Wrestling is such an impressive sport that other people do not quite understand. It is not just cut and dry, win or lose. Wrestlers pour their hearts into the battle, and display more emotion than many other athletes. Nothing is quite as telling about the wrestler's spirit than medal night celebrations.    So far, there are two gold-medal celebrations that stand out, Irini Merlini in women's wrestling at 48 kg/105.5 lbs. and Farid Mansurov of Azerbaijan in Greco-Roman at 66 kg/145.5 lbs.    Winning is such an emotional thing, and the Merlini's wild celebration hit a chord with the world. She cried uncontrollably. She hugged everybody, the referee included. She ran around the arena in a wild celebration that shook her entire being. She did not seem to know that she had won that match and when her arm was raised, she had an emotional explosion. Besides the video, many reporters wrote long articles about Merlini and her reaction to winning.    Mansurov is typical of a wrestling champion. They come from anywhere, small countries you can't spell nor can find on a map. When the fans wave the flag, they are often with wild designs and colors. Their national anthems are not well known, and sometimes not very inspiring. But when somebody wins from one of these nations, it is a big, huge, amazing deal. Somehow, there were fired up people from Azerbaijan in the arena, and when Mansurov won, they were hugging each other with such passion that they knocked each other over in the stands. When Mansurov was done with his medal ceremony, some Azerbaijanis lifted him up and threw him into the stands, where his countrymen tossed him way up into the air. I was worried they might miss him on the way down and he would fall down back into the arena.     Perhaps the longest ceremony ever in my five Olympics came at 55 kg/121 in Greco-Roman when Hungarian Istvan Majoros won the gold. The arena was packed with loud, supportive Hungarian fans. Hun-gar-ee, Hun-gar-ee, they chanted. After getting his medal, the procession took forever, as Majoros stopped and posed for numerous photographers and the other two athletes just had to stand there and wait.     ---    Then there is the issue of whether an athlete wins a silver medal, or, as most wrestlers look at it, lose a gold medal.    The media does not get that either. They want silver medalists to be happy campers, reaching an elevated level of joy by having a medal. That does not happen in wrestling. It is not just Americans. It is all nations. That silver medal came after a crushing defeat in the biggest opportunity in a person's life. It does not symbolize success to motivated athletes. It means that they fell short of their dream, by inches.    Sara McMann was distraught after losing her gold-medal match. No doubt about it. She looked upset during the medal ceremony. She was crying during press interviews. Later, she and Patricia Miranda gave a press conference at the Main Press Center and explained in a very intelligent and thoughtful way why wrestlers have such a tough time with silver medals.    They explained the emotion and individual investment wrestlers have in winning. They told about how champions must train with victory in mind, in order to have the slight edge in order to win. They explain the pain of loss in the finals, as Sara said, "the worst feeling you can ever experience." They were talking about their hearts and souls, what they put on the line every time they wrestle.     Sara explained that it is not like a race, when a silver medal means you were second among a bunch of people, often by a fraction of a second. It is not like a silver on a team sport, where a group of people are responsible. A silver medal in wrestling means you were on center stage, you go into battle, and you do not win. She then told them that at your most painful time, you are thrust into a horde of the international media and in front of thousands of fans in the arena.     Patricia explained how bronze medalists have a few hours to deal with the pain of losing the semifinals. They have a chance to get their emotions together, and then have to go out and wrestle again. They also end the tournament with a victory. She explained to them that a silver medalist does not have any time to deal with it all.     Nobody can say it is just Americans reacting this way to silvers. In the women's division, Chiharu Icho of Japan came down hard on herself, saying that she did "not have enough courage" to win, and implying that she had let down her nation. In Greco-Roman, 55 kg/121 lbs. silver medalist Geider Mamadaliyev of Russia looked like a drained beaten man, a ghost, on the award stand. This amazingly tough athlete wiped tears from his eyes as he listened to the wrong national anthem, as the victor from Hungary enjoyed he