And Now Afton Receives Its Own Olympic Moment

It’s been one unbelievable moment after another for Greco-Roman wrestler Rulon Gardner since the most unbelievable moment of all, when he beat the unbeatable, Russian Alexander Karelin, for the Olympic gold medal less than a week ago in Sydney, Australia.

What happened to him Wednesday night comes in a close second.

Gardner was at the NBC Studios in Burbank to make an appearance on the “Tonight Show With Jay Leno.”

In his dressing room before he came out, his wife Stacy insisted he wear an Olympic T-shirt with autographs all over it--about 1,000, he estimates. They were put there by the people from his hometown of Afton, Wyo. A fund-raiser had been held there so Gardner’s family--he has nine older brother and sisters--could go to Sydney. A donation meant you got to sign the T-shirt. Nearly $20,000 was raised.

Now keep in mind Afton, nestled against the mountains at the southern end of a 50-mile long valley known as the Star Valley on the western edge of the state adjacent to Idaho, has a population of 1,394.

Gardner wasn’t sure why Stacy insisted that he wear the T-shirt.

He would soon find out. After Bob Costas made a surprise appearance wearing a red wig and then did a funny skit with Leno about whether he dyed his hair or not for his Olympic host role, and after another guest, Norm MacDonald, did his thing, it was time for Gardner. As the producers had requested, he entered the stage by doing a cartwheel.

Early during Gardner’s appearance, Leno let him in on the secret that, besides the people of Afton, only a few people besides Stacy knew about. He was going to get his first chance to see and talk to the people back home.

NBC had sent a crew to Afton. The plan was to get the whole town--literally--to come out to the high school gymnasium and be a part of the Leno show. It was up to the mayor, who also owns the local radio station, to get everyone there. And it appeared he succeeded. The gym was packed.

Meanwhile, back in Burbank, Leno pointed to a microphone that had been placed on his desk and told Gardner, “You can talk to them.”

He thanked everybody and told them he would see them soon.

He then turned to something else Leno had on his desk--a box of tissues. The tears were flowing. There weren’t many dry eyes in the audience, either. Even the cue-card guy was crying.

“I was blown away,” Gardner said in his dressing room after the show. Then, turning toward Stacy, he said, “Now I know why you wanted me to wear this T-shirt.”

Stacy, you may recall, became almost as big a star as her husband in Sydney. After the gold-medal match, Stacy was shown talking on a cell phone to her father, Jimmy Carpenter, back home in Mesa, Ariz.

“He won, Dad, he won, he won,” she screamed through tears.

Gardner said that night he got about only an hour of sleep.

“I got to bed at about 5 a.m. and got up at 6,” he said. “I remember waking up and thinking, ‘Was that all just a dream?’ And then I reached over, and there was the gold medal.”

Originally, Gardner, who has lived and trained in Colorado Springs since 1998, planned to visit Afton the day after the Greco-Roman wrestling competition ended.

But one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history changed all that. He was asked to be the flag-bearer for the U.S. team during the closing ceremony, so that delayed his trip back to the U.S. He says now he probably won’t get to Afton until Oct. 23 or 24.

For now, his plate is full. After a photo shoot with Vanity Fair this morning, he’s off to New York for appearances with Conan O’Brien and David Letterman. It’s Rosie O’Donnell on Tuesday.

So how does Gardner like all this attention?

“I’m loving every second of it,” he said. “I still haven’t pinched myself, and I don’t think I will for a while.”