Athlete of the month: Olympic gold was Sanderson's goal

Cael Sanderson — Salt Lake City born and Heber City raised — won an Olympic gold medal Aug. 28 in freestyle wrestling.

To put that accomplishment in perspective, Sanderson became only the second Utah-born man — and the first in nearly a century — to earn Olympic gold in any event. Now Alma Richards, the high jump champion at the 1912 Stockholm Games, is no longer Utah's one-and-only man to bring home gold.

Cael, the third of four champion wrestling sons born to Steve and Debbie Sanderson of Heber City, had Olympic aspirations from a young age.

The family has an old scrapbook with a note listing the three goals of the then-first-grader Sanderson: Be a good student. Be a good person. Be an Olympic champion.

He was a good student. The 2002 college graduate was a two-time academic All-American. By all accounts, the mild-mannered Sanderson is a good person, too.

And now he's an Olympic champion, as well.

Even Tony Robbins and Stephen Covey have nothing on the goal-achieving Sanderson.

His success in Athens made Sanderson the obvious choice as the Deseret Morning News' Athlete of the Month for August.

"I see the medal, but it's hard to believe," said Sanderson to reporters while looking down at his gold-medal bearing chest in Athens.

It really wasn't hard to believe for those who have paid much attention to the Wasatch High graduate's career over the years. After winning four individual state championships in high school, he became the most distinguished college wrestler of all time, going 159-0 and winning four NCAA titles while at Iowa State. He even became the first wrestler to ever get his picture on a box of Wheaties thanks to his perfect college career.

The competition, however, became much stiffer once he advanced to national and international competition. Sanderson, often facing older and more experienced men, has found himself on the losing end of matches on occasion since completing his brilliant college career in 2002. He placed second at the 2003 Worlds, losing to Russia's Sazhid Sazhidov, and was again the silver medalist earlier this year at the U.S. Nationals, losing to Lee Fullhart.

That meant Fullhart, not Sanderson, had an automatic berth into the best-of-3 finals at the Olympic Trials. Sanderson made his way through the single-elimination tournament to get to the finals for a rematch with Fullhart. They split the first two matches, but Sanderson prevailed 4-1 in the decisive third match to make the Olympic team.