Word: wrestlers
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...suspect hands, and the Balkans exploded, but the worst side effect of the end of the cold war is that beating the Russians has lost its meaning. If this were 1968 and an oversize farm boy from Afton, Wyo., beat Alexander Karelin, a giant 286-lb. Russian Greco-Roman wrestler who hadn't lost a match in 13 years, then Rulon Gardner would have his own Wheaties...
Burton, wearing a baseball cap and khakis, was going to visit his aunt. He had grown up in Las Vegas and had been a popular wrestler in high school. He had earned an award for helping elderly people. The night before, he and his mother Janet had watched a TV special about air crashes. He mentioned the show to his mother on the drive to the airport but seemed fine, she says, when she kissed him goodbye at the gate...
...national hero, Karelin enjoys advantages unknown to other athletes. "There's not another wrestler in the world who travels with a helicopter and a massager and two or three doctors and coaches," declares Ghaffari, who says he and Karelin regard each other with mutual respect. Small wonder that when Russian President Vladimir Putin's Unity Party needed a boost last year, it picked Karelin to run for a legislative seat. Today the wrestler denies rumors that he wants to be President. "It's a totally different level of responsibility," he says, "and I am not ready for it." Just running...
Strength is paramount in Greco-Roman wrestling, which doesn't allow a competitor to take down an opponent by attacking his legs. That places a premium on lifts and throws. Such tactics are common in lighter weight classes, but Karelin--"King Kong" or "The Experiment" to fellow wrestlers--is the only super heavyweight with the strength to hoist a 290-lb. foe and fling him to the mat, in a maneuver the Russian calls a "reverse body lift." To execute it, Karelin locks his arms around the waist of an opponent, then lifts the wrestler like a sack of potatoes...
...Olympics, like table tennis, shooting, rhythmic gymnastics, the new synchronized diving and the modern pentathlon (shoot, fence, swim, run and show jump). And really, anything that you need Romanian judges to rate on a scale of 1 to 10 has got a little too far from the Greek-wrestler ideal...