Peterson to share story of unlikely journey to gold

The road to success is hardly ever a straight one. Especially when you take the road less traveled.

For John Peterson, his improbable journey to the top is equally impressive as his accomplishments.

Peterson graduated high school in 1967 having never made it to the state wrestling tournament. Nine years later, he was an Olympic champion.

He’ll share his story on Saturday at the Newton YMCA, giving a motivational speech at 2 p.m. to middle and high school students, and then at 7 p.m. to the general public.

“It speaks to the fact that if you’re peristent, keep training and work hard, you can make up a lot of ground in a short amount of time,” Peterson said of his path to success. “I didn’t have the same credentials in high school and college as other Olympians, but I quickly caught up. Wrestling is unique in that you can make up for a lack of physical skills through hard work and proper training.”

Peterson’s unlikely journey began in tiny Comstock, Wisc., an unincorporated town in the Northwest part of the state. Growing up on a dairy farm with four brothers and one sister, he went to nearby Cumberland High School, where he wrestled for the Beavers.

After failing to make the Wisconsin State Wrestling Tournament, Peterson almost walked away from the sport. But thanks to encouragement his younger brother Ben, he went on to a collegiate career at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, currently a Division III college that competed in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics in Peterson’s tenure from 1967-1971.

There, Peterson won three conference titles and became an all-american by taking fifth place at the NAIA nationals. At the same time, his brother Ben wrestled and won two national championships Iowa State, which opened the door for John to train with the legendary Dan Gable in Ames. After a month of working with Gable and other Cyclone national champions, Peterson qualified for the U.S. 1971 World Team.

Both John and Ben went on to the 1972 Olympics, where John took silver at middleweight and Ben took the gold at light heavyweight. Their medal matches finished at nearly the same instant.

“It was great. Wrestling is spoken of as an individual sport, but it’s probably more of a team sport than any other because you always need someone to wrestle with,” Peterson said of having his brother by his side throughout his wrestling career. “You’re not going to be a good wrestler without wrestling someone else, and when you have someone else that loves the sport as much as you do living in the same house, it makes for a perfect situation.”

Peterson noted the Bible passage of Proverbs 27:17, which reads, “Iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another,” as an analogy that sums up him and brother.

John won world championships in 1973 and 1975 before the brothers returned to the Olympic stage in 1976, this time with John winning gold and Ben taking second.

In 1977, the brothers founded “Camp of Champs”, a Wisconsin-based camp that combines intense training and competition with recreation and character training from a biblical perspective. The brothers still run the camp today and have incorporated numerous Olympic wrestlers and NCAA champions over the years to train with high schoolers.

John Peterson and his family lived and ministered in Europe from 1981-1991, and since then he’s held or assisted with a number of coaching positions. Through the sports ministry “Athletes in Action,” he coached teams to national competitions all over Europe and Asia. He was an assistant coach back at his high school alma mater of Cumberland for 18 years, and most recently has worked with wrestlers at the University of Minnesota, Augsburg College, and St. Cloud to encourage them in their Christian growth.

Peterson said he’s visited Newton a couple times before back when the National Wrestling Museum was located in town out near the I-80 corridor.

On Saturday, Peterson and his brother will visit the Newton Y to help kick off its annual Partner With Youth campaign fundraiser. He’ll be giving two motivational speeches.

The first is set for 2 p.m., when he is scheduled to speak to area middle and high school students at the Newton Community Theatre on the importance of positive values and the story about how he became an Olympic champion. The event is free for all youth.

The second event, scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Theatre, is open to the public for a free will donation where he will again share his message of Christian values.

Following both events, attendees are invited to take photos with the Olympian, get autographs and see the gold medal from the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.