caption birth_place headercolor birth_date image article_title name
gardner -lrb- center -rrb- in 2002 afton , wyoming , u.s. lightsteelblue august 16 , 1971 rulon gardner 2002.jpg rulon gardner
 rulon gardner
rulon gardner

rulon e. gardner -lrb- born august 16 , 1971 -rrb- is an american olympian who competed in the 2000 olympic games , winning the gold medal in greco-roman wrestling upon defeating russian aleksandr karelin , who was previously undefeated in 13 years of international competition .
it was also the first olympic gold medal won by an american greco-roman wrestler in a full international field .
gardner was also a contestant on the , which aired in 2011 .
