Aug. 9, 2007: The Salt Lake Tribune

Wrestler's Dream Getting Closer to Becoming Reality
by Michael C. Lewis

Wrestler Justin Ruiz was just a freshman in high school, he remembers, when a teacher asked him and his classmates to write down their lifetime goals, as an exercise in getting acquainted.

His answer?

Win a gold medal at the Olympics.

"I was still pretty new to wrestling," he says now, "so I didn't know all the work that went into it. Maybe if I had known, I would have re-thought it a little bit. But I knew that was the highest level of wrestling there was, so that's what I wanted to do - get to the highest level of wrestling."

Finally, after all these years, he's almost there.

One year from today, the competition at the 2008 Beijing Games begins in China, and the eyes of the world will focus on what the head of the U.S. Olympic Committee has described as the most important sporting event in his lifetime. And that's when Ruiz, a 28-year-old Taylorsville native and three-time state wrestling champion, expects to begin taking the final steps toward fulfilling the dream that has danced inside his head almost as long as he can remember.

"It would be great," he said, searching for meaningful words. "It's hard to explain, just because I've been working at it for so long and it's something not a whole lot of people get to experience. It would be one of the highlights of my life."

Ruiz is just one of nearly two dozen athletes with connections to Utah who harbor realistic hopes of representing their countries at the Beijing Games - but perhaps only a couple of collegiate steeplechase runners or members of the Utah Jazz have as good a chance at bringing home a gold medal.

Ruiz is the nation's top-ranked Greco-Roman wrestler in his 211.5-pound weight division - he's a four-time national champion - and he recently won a gold medal at the Pan-Am Games in Brazil. He will be among the favorites at the upcoming World Championships in Azerbaijan, having won bronze at the world meet in 2005.

"He's a warrior when he steps into that arena," Orem's Mark Fuller said.

And Fuller should know.

A four-time Olympic wrestler and seven-time national champion, he was among the coaches who helped Ruiz transition to Greco-Roman wrestling - the style that prohibits holds below the waist - while also enjoying his standout careers at Taylorsville High School and the University of Nebraska.

Now an area manager for Gold's Gym who focuses on corporate memberships, Fuller said he could see the potential in Ruiz years ago, but that Ruiz's tremendous will is what has brought him so far.

"It's all about willingness," Fuller said. "And so many kids at that age aren't willing to submit to the challenges and make the sacrifices and put in the work ethic. That willingness is one thing I saw. . . . It's a spirit inside."

That spirit never died, either - even when Ruiz spent two years away from wrestling while serving an LDS Church mission in Chile.

"The two years being away on the mission did hurt him," said Ivan Ivanov, another coach during Ruiz's formative years who used to work at the Treehouse Athletic Club in Draper but now runs the U.S. Olympic Education Center wrestling program in Michigan. "That's what was important for him, and nobody blames him about that. But also being realistic, nobody in Europe stops for two years. So that shows a lot about him. If those European athletes in his weight quit for two years, you would never see them again."

That was hardly the case with Ruiz, who made his greatest strides in the sport after coming home in 2001.

While finishing an All-American career at Nebraska in which he twice finished fifth in the NCAA Championships, Ruiz gradually ascended in the world of Greco-Roman wrestling - going from second to fourth to finally first at the national championships in 2004.

That was the first of his four straight national titles, but it also preceded "probably the biggest disappointment I've ever had, as far as wrestling goes." That occurred when Ruiz lost to Garrett Lowney in the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials - though he went to the Athens Games in Greece anyway, as a training partner for Lowney and Brad Verig.

"It was a good experience just to be there and watch the tournament and see this level of competition and see what it was all about," Ruiz said. "But at the same time, it was hard to be in the stands."

Since then, Ruiz said he has been doing "everything in my power" to make sure he doesn't suffer the same result.

He has been training at the U.S. Olympic Training Center for several years while living in Colorado Springs with his wife, Sarah, and traveling the world to improve his form against other wrestlers with different styles. Just last week, he left for Romania, where he and the rest of the national team planned to train in advance of the Ion Cornianu Memorial Tournament next week.

And next month, it's off to the world championships in Azerbaijan - essentially a dress rehearsal for the Beijing Games.

"My goal is to medal again and to win the tournament," Ruiz said. "This world championships is definitely big, but I'm confident in my training and my preparation."

Ruiz, whose younger brother, Brandon Ruiz, is among several up-and-coming wrestlers from Utah who appear positioned to find their top form in time for the 2012 London Games, says he doesn't often get home to visit his parents and brothers in the Taylorsville area. But he is hoping to land a job as a part-time coach under his former club coach, Greg Williams, at Utah Valley State College in Orem that would afford him more frequent visits, even if he does retire after the Olympics and stays in Colorado Springs.

One thing at a time, though.

For the moment, the clock is ticking, and Ruiz has one year - one important year - standing between him and his dream.

"Everything is on track right now, I'm doing everything I can to keep an edge over my U.S. competitors to make the team," he said. "My ultimate goal is to win the Olympics and win a medal and just have a good time doing it. I've been at this a long time now . . . but I think this year will go pretty well."