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Dan Gable
- 1972 Olympic champion
- 1971 World champion
- Three-time U.S. Freestyle National champion (1969-1971), named outstanding wrestler at the 1970 championships
- Coming to the 1972 Olympics with only one goal in mind, the Soviets wanted to defeat Gable … they were unsuccessful because he did not surrender a point to any of his opponents
- Won a gold medal at the 1971 Pan American Games
- Became the 1972 Tbilisi Tournament champion and was named the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler
- Won an unprecedented six Midlands Open championships and was named the meets Outstanding Wrester five times
- Was a three-time NCAA champion, losing his only match his senior year in the NCAA Finals
- Named the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the NCAA Tournament in leading Iowa State University to it’s first back-to-back championships
- Earned the Gorrarian Award his junior and senior years in college for the most pins in the least amount of time at the NCAA Tournament
- Named one of the “100 Golden Olympians” (1996), Wrestler of the Century (Gannett Co.), one of the top coaches in the 20th Century (ESPN), Iowa’s top sports figure in the past century, nation’s outstanding wrestler by U.S. Wrestling Federation (1971)
- Coached the 1980, 1984 and 2000 U.S. Olympic freestyle team (the 1984 team won seven gold medals), assistant coach of the 1976, 1988 Games
- Was the head coach for the World team six times (1977-1979, 1983, 1994, 1999) and World Cup team head coach 10 times winning three team gold medals
- Didn’t become hooked on wrestling until he was a teenager and tried baseball, football, track and swimming
- Inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1985, U.S. National Wrestling Hall of Fame as a wrestler and a coach in 1980
Gable had amazing success on the mat while coming up in the ranks and as a coach after his competitor career. In his high school and college careers, Gable won 182 matches and only lost one, but credits that lost as the fire that wouldn’t relinquish a point during the 1972 Olympics and his accomplishments as a coach. “I needed to get beat because it not just helped me win the Olympics, but it helped me dominated the Olympics,” Gable said on his Web site. “But more than that, it helped me be a better coach. I would have a hundred times rather not have that happened, but I used it.” As a coach at the University of Iowa, he had a 21 year record of 355 wins, 21 losses and won nine consecutive NCAA titles. He coached 45 National champions, 152 All-Americans, 106 Big Ten champions and 10 Olympians, including four gold, one silver and three bronze medalists. Gable was Iowa’s all-time winningest wrestling coach from 1977 to 1997 with seven perfect seasons and was named NCAA Coach of the Year three times.
Related Links Official Web site: Dan Gable
On hard work: “The obvious goals were there – state champion, NCAA champion, Olympic champion,” said Gable on his Web site. “To get there I had to set an everyday goal, which was to push myself to exhaustion or, in other words, to work so hard in practice that someone would have to carry me off the mat.”
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Born: 10/25/1948
Hometown: Waterloo, Iowa
Resides: Iowa City, Iowa
Sport: Wrestling
Event: Freestyle
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