Gardner back to speaking just days after plane crash

Published: Wednesday, Feb. 28 2007 12:05 a.m. MST

Rulon Gardner holds his gold and bronze Olympic medals after giving a speech at Middlesex School in Concord, Mass., Tuesday.

Michael Dwyer, Associated Press

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Olympic gold medalist Rulon Gardner was back on a plane, back on the speaker's circuit and back on a wrestling mat just days after a plane crash plunged him into frigid Lake Powell near the Arizona-Utah border. Adding the encounter to his growing list of near-miracles, Gardner said Tuesday in Massachusetts that his harrowing weekend "is an experience I still can't comprehend."

"I saw God. I saw Jesus. I saw my dead brother. They told me it's time to come home," Gardner told the students and faculty at a suburban Boston prep school. "I said, 'Please, not yet. I'm just starting to get good."'

Wearing jeans on a campus where they're not allowed and a leather jacket adorned with the Olympic rings, Gardner spoke at the Middlesex School about setting goals and reaching them for about an hour.

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