Just under eight months ago, 230 days to be exact, Garrett Lowney's life and wrestling career nearly changed.    Lowney, who had shocked the world with a Greco-Roman bronze-medal performance at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, was hurt.    On June 22, his career nearly came to an end. On February 7, he resurrected that career.    In the finals of the 2003 U.S. World Team Trials, he herniated a disc in his neck. The injury, in most cases, is treatable. In Lowney's case, it was a red alert.    From years of abuse through the sport of wrestling, Lowney had contracted spinal stenosis. In spinal stenosis, the spinal canal, which contains and protects the spinal cord and nerve roots, narrows and pinches the spinal cord and nerves. The result is low back pain as well as pain in the legs.    Against Justin Ruiz in the U.S. World Team Trials championship series, Lowney was knocked out in the first of two matches. He had a feeling of pins and needles poking and prodding his body. But being the warrior he is, Lowney would not quit.    "No one could get me off the mat at that point. I had just scored and taken the lead, and all I could think was 'I don't want to give this match up when I have the lead.' After the Trials was when I really started to worry what my health was," Lowney stated.    "In looking back, continuing to wrestle was kind of dumb, because if I would have fallen on my head again, I could have been paralyzed," he added.    Not only did Lowney win that first match 5-1, but he came back to win the second match 4-0 in a feat normally only referred to in the Bible.    Following that match, Lowney went back to Minneapolis, Minnesota, his home at the time, to recover. He could not ignore the pain he was feeling, and soon knew he needed to see a doctor. The results of numerous tests were not good. Doctors recommended surgery, which meant that Lowney would have to miss the 2003 Pan American Games and the 2003 World Championships, an Olympic qualifying event.    "Because of my age, (doctors) didn't want to perform surgery on me," Lowney said. "I have had timelines to stop wrestling, but after looking at the severity of the injury, the doctors felt that I should go ahead with the surgery."    Adding a herniated disc to spinal stenosis was career-threatening for the 23 year-old from Appleton, Wisconsin. The discomforts of the injury were a quake to his career. Thus, the surgery was not to be taken lightly.    Doctors fused together Lowney's third and fourth vertebrae, and then took bone from his hip and fit it between his two vertebrae to help fix the injury.    The risk? Since there is no motion between his third and fourth vertebrae, Lowney's other vertebrae must compensate for the lack of motion, thus increasing the risk of another injury. The prognosis? A 50/50 chance he would be able to wrestle again.    In the meantime, Ruiz took Lowney's spot on the U.S. Greco-Roman World Team. He won a silver medal at the Pan American Games, but was unable to place in the top 10 at the World Championships, leaving the weight class unqualified for the United States.    Just over two months after the World Championships, in mid-December, Lowney decided to get back on the mat. He wanted to wrestle again, much to the dismay of his wife, Krystal.    "My wife wasn't too happy about the decision. But I want to wrestle. A lot of people have told me that I am a lot nicer person since I started wrestling again," Lowney said.    The return for Lowney was abnormal.    "It was weird," he said. "I don't think that I had a break from wrestling that long since I was 5. I had to think of little things like where my feet were at, but it all came back eventually."    Lowney's return also brought him to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he attended a Greco-Roman training camp in January. The training camp usually brings together some of the best wrestlers in the world, and Lowney was one of them. But his stay was short-lived.    Lowney received a scare when he landed on his head during the camp. Doctors in Colorado Springs ran numerous tests, but determined that structurally, there were no problems.    Though his quest nearly came to a halt, Lowney did not shy away from the near-injury in January.    "I am not worried anymore, because that's as hard of a blow as I'll take," he stated.    On Saturday evening on the complex of the U.S. Olympic Training Center, where Lowney had spent so much time in search of his first Olympic medal, he made his official return to the mat. In two matches, he recorded two pins. The first in just over one minute. The second in a miniscule 23 seconds.    The two wins gave Lowney a rematch with Ruiz in the semifinals at 96 kg/211.5 lbs. With the weight class still not secured for the United States, the winner of that match is likely to be the wrestler that will attend the first Olympic qualifying tournament in Novi-Sad, Serbia and Montenegro, Feb. 28-29.    There is no doubt in Lowney's mind as to who he would like to compete at the event.    "We've got to get this weight qualified. Everyone wants to put it in their own hands. I don't want to rely on anyone else. That's just the wrestler in me that wants to go over there and get that part over with. I think that there are others in my weight class that can qualify the weight, but I want to be the one to go," Lowney said. "Otherwise, I will be wondering if I came back and did all this for nothing."    For Lowney, it has been 360 degrees in 230 days. His life and his career have came full circle. Laying on his back and writhing in pain at the end of June, he was putting others on their back and putting them through pain on Saturday.    "I really am looking forward to just be able to judge where I am at. I have been training so hard for three months. Now I need to find out what level I am at right now," Lowney said.    "I honestly enjoy the sport more now. I am back to appreciating what this sport has done for me. It's the closest thing to an addiction that I have ever had. When that injury happened to me last year and I couldn't move my arms and legs, it was scary. It's amazing how time can make you forget."    And for Lowney, time may be the most valuable commodity in his life.