Dan Gable in 1966 decided that he wanted to win the 1972 Olympic Games. So, he started training. He trained at least once a day, and usually twice a day, and he had very injured knees. One doctor said, “Dan, if you keep wrestling, you might be crippled for the rest of your life.” Dan Gable kept wrestling. He found that wrestling on one leg made him a better wrestler than wrestling on two legs. 

                          Las Wednesday, he talked about the year before the Olympics, he entered the biggest wrestling tournament in the world. Tbilisi is the capital in Georgia, and back at that time, it was still part of the Soviet Union.

                          So, they had this wrestling tournament, and Dan Gable won his weight class, and was given the Outstanding Wrestler Award. Now, wresting line Russia is huge, and at the end of their tournaments which are several day affairs, they had this banquet with 10,000 people where they honored all the champions, and they especially honored Dan Gable.

                          So, Dan Gable after he got all his awards, he went back to his table, and the head of the Russian Wrestling Federation is talking in Russian, and every once in a while he heard, “Goble, Goble, Goble.” He said to his buddy next to him who spoke Russian, “Is he talking about me?” He said, “Yes, he is.” He said, “What’s he saying?” He said, “I’ll tell you when he’s done.”

                          So, when the Head of the Russian Wrestling Federation was done, Gable’s friend said, “He said that between now and the 1972 Olympics, they’re going to every state in the Soviet Union, they are going to every school, they are going to every wrestling club, and they are going to find a person to beat the American Dan Gable in the 1972 Olympics.” 

                          Last week, Dan Gable said something awesome. He said, “When he told me that sentence, all of a sudden, I got this excitement in my body. I said, ‘I’m taking it to the next level.’”

                          Now, when I told this story to my class a couple of days ago, this kid put his hand up, he said, “Hey, Doctor Gilbert, there have been other Americans who have won gold medals in wrestling. Why you making such a big deal about Dan Gable?” I said, “You’re right. There are others wrestlers who have won more than one gold medal in Olympics, but Dan Gable did something that nobody in the history of the world ever did.”

                          When Dan Gable won his Olympic gold medal in 1972, nobody even scored one point on him. He shut out each and every one of his opponents. That would be the equivalent to a pitcher pitching three no-hitters in the World Series. So, Dan Gable shut out each and every one of them. 

                          Now, in the ramp up to the 1972 Olympics, he trained for six years, and somebody said, “What motivated you?” He said, “I knew I had to beat a Russian