Confined To Greatness Baumgartner Pursues Fourth Olympic Medal In Same Solitary Fashion

He grows asparagus in the garden, bakes his own Christmas cookies, dabbles expertly in woodwork and collects stamps. Bruce Baumgartner owns every regular and commemorative stamp issued in the United States since 1959. He also owns two of the three Olympic gold medals issued to superheavyweight wrestlers since 1984.

Some consider his 6-foot-2-inch, 286-pound frame, marvel at the his short-burst quickness and his smothering strength, stare at his 52-inch chest and calves as thick as fence posts, and they wonder what Baumgartner might have achieved in a helmet and shoulder pads.

“Could you imagine him as a pulling guard?” said Bruce Burnett, the national freestyle wrestling coach.

But to fantasize about football, as Baumgartner’s wife, Linda, points out, is to miss the point. Her husband is a man of solitary pursuits. He prefers a sport that, like his hobbies, can be accomplished alone, free of assistance or distraction. If he’s not wrestling, he’s probably fishing.

“In wrestling there is no one to rely on except yourself,” Linda Baumgartner said. “In football, the receiver needs a quarterback to throw the ball. In wrestling, it’s just you. Any mistake is your mistake. Any praise is your praise.”

This self-reliance has brought Baumgartner three freestyle world championships, two Olympic gold medals (1984, 1992) and one silver (1988). In March, he received the James E. Sullivan Award as the nation’s top amateur athlete. If, at age 35, he wins a third Olympic gold medal in Atlanta this summer, Baumgartner would match Aleksandr Medved of the former Soviet Union, whom many consider the greatest freestyle wrestler ever.

There is the small matter of qualifying at the Olympic trials this weekend at the Arena in Spokane, but that would seem a mere formality. Baumgartner has not lost to an American wrestler since 1981.

“At his age, he shouldn’t be getting better, but he is,” said Joe Seay, the U.S. Olympic freestyle coach.

Another Olympic medal would place Baumgartner in the select company of Francis Conn Findlay (rowing, yachting), Al Oerter (discus), Michael Plumb (equestrian) and Norbert Schemansky (weight lifting) as the only Americans to win medals in four separate Olympic Games. But his greatness does not come from the company he keeps. Rather, it blooms from his solitude.

“I’m going to be a good hermit one day,” Baumgartner said.

He coaches wrestling at Edinboro University, a half-hour from Lake Erie in the northwest corner of Pennsylvania, a place of such splendid isolation that Baumgartner’s training partners must often be flown in.

Home is a restored 75-year-old farmhouse set amid the rolling fields of nearby Cambridge Springs. Baumgartner holds a master’s degree in industrial arts education from Indiana State University, and his handiwork is evident in the woodwork in the family room, in a clock fashioned from a slab of cypress and in wooden puzzles made for his young sons, Bryan and Zachary. After the Olympics, he’s more likely to visit “This Old House” than the White House.

Linda Baumgartner said that she can count her husband’s close friends, almost like his defeats, on one hand. He is content to be home with his family. Of the American wrestlers, Baumgartner was perhaps closest to Dave Schultz, who was shot to death in January. They were about the same age and had known each other for 15 years. Both had families. Both had won gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Baumgartner called Schultz “the most unselfish and giving person I have ever met.” He appreciated Schultz’s technical skills, his use of strategy and his wicked sense of humor.

In 1984, Baumgartner won a tournament in Tbilisi, Georgia. First prize was the cooked head of a sheep, his wife said, which would have been difficult to keep in a trophy case, and even more difficult to take through customs. Baumgartner left the trophy behind. Schultz didn’t.

“Dave took it back to the hotel room,” Linda Baumgartner said. “When Bruce woke up the next day, there was the head of a sheep sitting on the night stand.”

Schultz’s death, Baumgartner said, “puts into perspective what is important and what’s not important.” The man accused of killing Schultz, the millionaire John du Pont, had recruited Baumgartner for his Team Foxcatcher, but Baumgartner had declined. Du Pont seemed to be an unhappy man trying to buy respect and friendship with his club, Baumgartner said.

“You can buy friendship in a certain way,” Baumgartner said. “You can’t buy respect.”

Baumgartner felt more comfortable in the relative seclusion of Edinboro, where his one conceit is a vanity license plate that marks his first Olympic gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. If his lifestyle is one “that the average person would say is boring,” Baumgartner said, it has also afforded him uncommon longevity in his sport. He has avoided serious injury and the stress of those who must make weight in the lower divisions. He also avoids alcohol and bars, and if he is not home by 9 at night, it means he is out lifting weights, not mugs of beer.

“There is a difference between interest and commitment,” said Burnett, the national team coach. “When you are committed, you refuse to accept excuses, only results. That’s Bruce.”

Baumgartner grew up in Haledon, N.J., and was introduced to the finer points of wrestling by his brother, Robert. Unfortunately for their mother, the boys did not bother adjourning to the nearest gym for these sweaty tutorials.

“He’d show me the moves in the living room and we’d wrestle around and break the place up,” Baumgartner said. “We put a couple of body parts through the wall here and there. My head or my brother’s.”

By 1980, he had stopped going through walls and started going through opponents at Indiana State. After two second-place finishes, Baumgartner took the 1982 national collegiate title. By 1984, he had become Olympic champion. He finished second to David Gobezhishvili of the former Soviet Union in 1988, then dropped to seventh at the 1991 world championships. Some thought his career was over. But if the news media ignored Baumgartner before the 1992 Summer Games, his opponents could not.

In a rematch with his nemesis, Gobezhishvili, Baumgartner struck with 8 seconds remaining in a scoreless match, dropping his opponent with a double-leg takedown. It is wrestling’s equivalent of the football tackle. This was vintage Baumgartner, waiting patiently, then driving into his opponent with his shoulder, collapsing his legs. He outscored five opponents in Barcelona by 35-1, and dispatched the sixth in 11 seconds, on his way to a second gold medal.

Now a third gold medal is within reach. At 35, Baumgartner is developing new moves the way a pitcher develops off-speed cunning when his fastball goes. He continues to wrestle because it is fun, he said. And, who knows, it may remain fun for several more years.

“Bruce has always wrestled for himself,” Linda Baumgartner said.

That’s the beauty of it. He could wrestle for himself. And by himself.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: TICKET INFORMATION The U.S. Olympic Freestyle Wrestling Trials Friday and Saturday in the Spokane Arena: Times: Friday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., 2-5 p.m.; Saturday, kids/coaches clinic 8:30-10 a.m.; 11 a.m.1 p.m. (round one of best-of-three finals), 6-9 p.m. (rounds 2 and 3 of best-of-three finals). Tickets: G&B Select-A-Seat outlets, 325-SEAT. Prices: $15 per session Friday; $18 first session Saturday; $25 Saturday night; $15 kids/coaches clinic.