Karelin, whose throwing skills are so renowned that he has a lift named for him, tried to throw Gardner around in the first two minutes but couldn't. Gardner stayed chest-to-chest, shoulder-to-shoulder, never letting Karelin get leverage or a chance to toss him for points.

The key moment came after the first scoreless three minutes. At that point, the wrestlers begin the second period with a clinch and must remain locked until one executes a scoring move or releases his lock.

As the two powered each other to the side of the mat, Gardner managed to keep his hands clinched, but Karelin's slipped apart. After watching a replay, the mat judges confirmed Karelin's hands had separated.

The score went up: 1-0, Gardner — the first deficit Karelin had faced since the 1988 Olympic finals.

"He had a great lock on me, and another three or four inches I would have let it slip," Gardner said. "But I always wrestle kind of unorthodox, and our feet got tangled and I got under him. Maybe it confused him. But I said to myself 'He broke' and I got the point."

Matt Ghaffari of the United States never could get that one point in 1996, losing in overtime to Karelin 1-0. Gardner, who beat Ghaffari in the U.S. trials, now had the point, and he could dictate the action.

"His junior college coach once told him, 'You're in great shape. When you get into overtime, you shouldn't lose,' " said Reed Gardner, Rulon's father. "He's always remembered that. He almost never loses in overtime."

Karelin seemed to tire as the nine-minute mark approached, taking fewer and fewer scoring chances, realizing what was about to happen. Finally, with about eight seconds left, the truly impossible happened. He quit wrestling, dropped his hands and conceded the first international defeat he had ever sustained.

"But I wasn't going to come out of my stance," Gardner said. "As soon as I do that, he could come at me and try to throw me and who knows what the judges would do? But if he did that as a sign of respect, I appreciate it."

The 29-year-old Gardner, who took to the mat wearing a T-shirt signed by friends back home in Afton, Wyo. — including race car driver Richard Petty — had an advantage in that he was wrestling only his second match of the day. It was the 33-year-old Karelin's third.

"It was 6,900 feet above sea level where I grew up, and I pride myself on being in shape," Gardner said. "The coaches kept saying, 'He's tired. He's mentally tired,' but I didn't listen to them. I couldn't. If you let up for one second, he can throw you."

Karelin is so strong that he once carried a refrigerator up seven flights of stairs rather than ask for help, but, on this night, supposedly his night of nights, he didn't have the strength to win.