SELF-CONFIDENT MAN
Gardner knew early he could be legendary Karelin
By Steve Fraser, W.I.N. Columnist
Self-confidence is an important characteristic for a person to have in order to reach their full potential.
The other night I attended my 13 year-old daughter’s play “Alice in Wonderland.” My daughter, Hannah, has been practicing and reciting her lines for weeks in our house. While I was proud and excited to see her so enthusiastic about acting, I was in awe of her ability to perform with such confidence. I couldn’t help but wonder how she would actually perform in front of a live audience.
I have to admit I showed up the night of the play not really expecting a Broadway performance. After all this was a play produced and performed by a bunch of middle-school kids. Boy, was I wrong.
Instead, I not only witnessed my daughter nail her character and bring loud outbursts of laughter from a packed house of parents, friends and teachers, but the entire play was non-stop entertainment. It was outstanding and I was entertained the entire time.
I cou
ldn’t believe my eyes. Here was my youngest daughter, in a lead role in a successful school play, belting out lines, singing tunes and doing so with so much pride, confidence and enthusiasm. And, she wasn’t alone. There were lots of other kids in different characters that did the same. In fact, there are definitely some rising stars coming out of Eagleview Middle School. However, there were also kids that lacked confidence. While they managed to get through the play and perform, they were difficult to understand, hard to hear and not fully engaging. Whether you’re a young girl experimenting with acting or you’re a rough and tough world caliber wrestler striving for Olympic gold, you need self-confidence to be successful.
Two months before the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, my U.S. Olympic Team and I were in Russia wrestling at the Podubbny Tournament. Alexander Karelin, then a nine-time World Champion, three-time Olympic champion and the Russian super-hero of international wrestling, was not competing in this tournament.
The media, who obviously anticipated Karelin’s fourth Olympic gold medal victory on the horizon in Sydney, was curious to hear the opinion of Rulon Gardner, the United States’ No. 1 heavyweight. They asked him what he thought about a possible meeting and match between he and Karelin at the upcoming Games.
I listened attentively to Rulon’s reply, as I was eager to hear his response. He was giving an enormous amount of respect to Karelin. He was being too respectful in my opinion and didn’t give himself enough credit. As his coach, it made me uneasy to hear this lack of self-confidence coming from my athlete. I felt Rulon was selling himself short. I thought he could beat Karelin on any given day but he needed to believe this himself.
As soon as he was done with the interview I told Rulon to stop disrespecting himself. “You can beat him. You match up perfectly against him. You can beat him. Start believing you can beat this guy. If you don’t do it someone else will,” these were my words to Rulon.
He looked at me puzzled. He shook his head to acknowledge, yes, and that he understood but I could tell he wasn’t fully grasping it nor believing that he could actually defeat this wrestling icon.
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