Rulon Gardner trains with India's Rishi Pal at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. Justin Edmonds for The New York Times

COLORADO SPRINGS — The wrestling room at the United States Olympic Training Center smelled of stale sweat and fresh expectation. Training amid dozens of Greco-Roman wrestlers was a familiar athlete with a crew cut and an overstuffed suitcase of a body. Never sculptured, his round physique had gone to flab and now aspired again to fitness. This was Rulon Gardner, the Wyoming farm boy who beat the unbeatable Russian and now had a 64-inch chest, 9 toes and seemingly 9 lives, few if any lived in moderation. 

In a gold medal match at the 2000 Sydney Games, Gardner scored one of the greatest Olympic upsets, defeating the Russian Aleksandr Karelin, a three-time champion so imposing that he had not lost a match in 13 years or surrendered a point in 6. 

The intervening years for Gardner have been more down than up, unlike his weight: an Olympic bronze medal in 2004; retirement; divorce and marriage to his third wife; trouble financing a gym; death-defying experiences aboard a snowmobile, a motorcycle and a small plane; an abortive appearance on the NBC reality show “The Biggest Loser” after he ballooned to 474 pounds — nearly 200 above his gold medal weight. 

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