STILLWATER, OKLA. - Olympic and World medalist Greg Gibson, who now resides in Fontana, Calif., has been elected as a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum. 

Gibson will be among four wrestling greats who will be inducted as Distinguished Members at its annual Honors Weekend Banquet and Induction Ceremony June 2, 2007 in Stillwater, Okla.

Gibson won an Olympic silver medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Calif. competing in the 100 kg/220 lbs. weight class. He was one of four U.S. Greco-Roman wrestlers to win a medal during the Los Angeles Games. Prior to this, the United States had never won an Olympic medal in Greco-Roman.

Gibson is considered one of the most versatile wrestlers in history, the only American to ever win World medals in three international styles: Greco-Roman, freestyle and Sombo. He also had one of the longest international wrestling careers in history, competing on the Senior level well into his late 40's.

For many years, Gibson was one of the nation's best wrestlers in his weight class in both Olympic styles, freestyle and Greco-Roman. In 1982, Gibson represented the United States at both the Freestyle World Championships in Edmonton, Canada, as well as the Greco-Roman World Championships in Katowice, Poland.

Gibson won three World Championships medals in freestyle, capturing World silver medals in 1981 and 1983 and a World bronze in freestyle in 1982. Gibson was a member of the 1981, 1982 and 1985 U.S. Greco-Roman World Teams. He was a Pan American Games champion in 1983 in freestyle, and won three World Cup titles, with a freestyle title in 1980 and Greco-Roman titles in 1984 and 1985. 
 
He won his Sombo World Championships title in 1982, the first American to win a gold medal in this discipline. He also claimed a Sombo World Cup title in 1981. Sombo is a form of jacket wrestling with submission holds originally developed in the former Soviet Union as a form of unarmed self-defense. When Gibson won his World title, Sombo was recognized as a form of wrestling by the international federation FILA, and he beat an athlete from the Soviet Union for the gold. 

Gibson served in the U.S. Marines for more than 20 years, and is considered the greatest U.S. military wrestler, winning 19 Armed Forces titles in the two styles. He also won seven Senior national titles during his career, including both freestyle and Greco-Roman national tournaments hosted by the U.S. Wrestling Federation or the Amateur Athletic Union.

He continued to compete on the Senior national level through 2001 at the age of 48, when he was sixth in Greco-Roman at the World Team Trials. 

Gibson had a successful college career, earning All-American honors twice for the Univ. of Oregon, earning a runner-up finish in at heavyweight in both 1975 and 1976. He is originally from California, where he competed for Shasta High School. 

In his career with the U.S. Marine Corps, Gibson distinguished himself in service to our nation in combat, including a tour of duty during the first Gulf War. He recently retired from the U.S. Marine Corps.

Profiles of the new Distinguished Members of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum will be posted this week from Thursday through Sunday on TheMat.com.