The Steamboat Pilot & Today

At first glance, young, blond-haired Tyler Johnson seems to have little in common with the giant of a man standing next to him in a year-old picture.

Tyler was 9 when he posed for a photograph with Rulon Gardner, an Olympic gold medalist. A love for wrestling brought the pair together last year at a training camp in Steamboat Springs. Gardner, whose rise to fame and subsequent life hurdles have made him a living legend, traveled to Steamboat to lead the camp and offer motivational speaking.

A year later, he and Tyler have much more in common than a few hours on the same mats, and both headline what will be a busy week for the Yampa Valley Wrestling Club.

Tyler’s mother, Shara Johnson, said Tyler is heading to Denver on Saturday for surgery, his first operation since a still-unidentified disease struck him just more than three weeks ago. Doctors at The Children’s Hospital in Denver told Johnson that Tyler’s symptoms most resemble a form of meningitis called meningococcal disease, a bacterial infection in the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

The first surgery likely will involve removing much of 10-year-old Tyler’s toes and fingers.

“Right now, they’re going to take off all the dead tissue and then they’ll go from there,” Johnson said. “They don’t know how much is still actively alive underneath it, but they’re hoping. It’s obvious his fingers and toes are all dead, so I’m almost certain they’ll have to take those off. We’re hoping most of his feet can be saved and they can do skin graft on a part of it.”

The disease and its repercussions make Tyler’s bond with Gardner all the more important, Johnson said. After winning a gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Gardner lost a toe to frostbite after a snowmobile accident. Gardner told the story of his recovery as a part of last year’s camp, and it’s not a lesson Tyler forgot.

Steamboat support

While Tyler is suffering through the first of what could be multiple surgeries in Denver, some of his best friends will gather in Steamboat for a fundraiser to help support his fight.

The Yampa Valley Wrestling Club is hosting a benefit lunch from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Sears on Shield Drive. Lunch will be served and donations collected. That’s only a part of Steamboat’s effort to rally around the Johnson family. Donations also will be accepted at the Alpine Bank tent during tonight’s Free Summer Concert at Howelsen Hill.

“It has been extremely important,” Johnson said of the community support. “It’s really wonderful of all of them. It’s great we’ve had so much support.”

Gardner, meanwhile, will be in town Tuesday and Wednesday to lead this year’s version of his wrestling camp, where he met Tyler last year.