Rulon Gardner

“Wrestling is just an extension of who I am.”

“Being on 'The Biggest Loser,' that's where my fire turned back on. It was time to go out there and take care of business. The old dog has the scent to hunt again, and for me, this dog wants to run again and go with the big guys.”

“I'm a wrestler with nine toes. I'm a wrestler who has been through a lot of battles. I get to do a lot of motivational speaking, and people are blown away and say, 'You never quit. You keep coming back.'”

“Some people think I have a death wish. I don't have one. I just make mistakes. Bad things happen to good people.”

“Even when on 'The Biggest Loser', I was out doing back handsprings on the show, throwing dummies on the mat.”

“Everything is work on the farm.”

“People in my life have either supported me or doubted me. The only people I hear are the doubters. So, for me, I look at life, and I don't feel like I have anything to prove, but I have an opportunity.”

“People consider me a hero, but I turn around and look at the military people overseas. They're the freaking heroes. They're the ones putting their lives on the line for America.”

“I can't tell what's going on with my feet. They don't say, 'Hey, I'm losing balance.' They give me almost zero feedback.”

“As the youngest of nine on a dairy farm, life was never easy. We'd get up and milk, haul hay, change the pipe, then go to school, wrestling practice, and come home and milk all over again.”

“You just try to make the best decisions you can. You just take life as it comes to you and do your best.”

“I'm trying to make better choices, and for me, this is kind of a rebirth. If I make the Olympic team? Great. If not, look at myself after eight years and ballooning up almost 200 pounds and getting on 'The Biggest Loser.' You know what? I get my life back again, and that's what truly mattered to me.”

“I don't have all this money people think Olympic athletes have.”

“I look at what I have as compared to what I don't have. I have this, I have this, I have this. Thank God for it, and let's move on.”

“Ultimately, I didn't look at 'The Biggest Loser' as being my defining moment. I wasn't there to compete and win the money. I wasn't there to win 'The Biggest Loser.' I was there for my health.”

“When I started out on 'The Biggest Loser,' for me it was kind of embarrassing to be on national TV and go from this wrestling icon, this Olympic gold medalist, to being on 'The Biggest Loser.'”

“I act young, I look old, and I'm crazy to be wrestling.”

“That's why I kept wrestling - I'm too dumb to realize I can't win, so I keep wrestling until I ultimately succeed. I'm pretty dang stubborn.”

“I can freestyle for a while, but I'm not an Olympic swimmer who can go two or three miles.”

“'The Biggest Loser' was only a steppingstone to my comeback, to my ultimate success. It was a vehicle to give me my life back. It was a vehicle to give me my health.”