Mark Schultz

Mark Philip Schultz (born October 26, 1960) is an American Olympic and 2-time World champion freestyle wrestler and a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame, and the California Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Mark Schultz was born in 1960 in Palo Alto, California to Dorothy Jean St. Germain (née Rich) and Philip Gary Schultz. He was their second son, with a 17 month-older brother Dave.

They had two half-siblings, Michael and Seana.

Schultz is of half Ukrainian Jewish and half British descent. His paternal grandparents were Estelle (Bernstein), a prominent paper company executive, and Maxwell L. Schultz, a business consultant.

In 1984 Mark and Dave Schultz both won Olympic Gold in wrestling events, as did the American twin Banach brothers.

The following year Mark won the World Championships and faced competitors from all the Eastern bloc countries who had boycotted the 1984 Olympics.

In the World finals, Mark built a 10-2 lead after one minute and won 10-5. Mark Schultz is the only 1984 Olympic Champion to win the 1985 World Championships; his brother Dave was the only 1984 Olympic Champion to have won the 1983 World Championships.

The Schultz brothers won more NCAA, U.S. Open, World, and Olympic titles than any American brother combination in history.

He is one of the world’s most accomplished athletes.

He participated in two Olympics, winning a Gold Medal (1984) and World Championships in 1985 and 1987.

Olympian Magazine named Mark Schultz, “1987 Sportsman of the Year” and he was nominated for the Sullivan Award, as the USA’s best Olympic athlete.

After a miserable junior year record of 4-6, he transferred schools and began training with the Stanford wrestling team in his hometown of Palo Alto, CA.

His senior year he won no local tournaments during the regular season.

However in the post season state qualifiers, with a new attitude and a burning desire to win, he won the league, region, section, and, finally, the 1978 California State Title.

In 1990, Dave Schultz was hired to coach at the training center founded by John E. Du Pont at his estate Foxcatcher Farm.

Foxcatcher National Training Center was designated an official Olympic training site for wrestling by USA Wrestling.

The team was called “Team Foxcatcher”.

World class wrestlers came to use the compound regularly to train, with some, including Dave Schultz and his family, living on the estate.

Mark Schultz will continue drinking in life and sharing his experiences in songs.

Married in 2005 and having recently moved from Nashville to North Carolina, there’s a lot bubbling up in his life to provide plenty of substance for his creative mill.

He remains appreciative yet somewhat surprised at his platform.

He’s earned numerous accolades and become one of the Christian format’s core artists with seven charttopping hits to his credit.

He’s also found success on mainstream radio, scoring an AC hit with “He’s My Son.” His last project, Live. . .A Night of Stories and Songs, won the 2006 Gospel Music Association Dove Award for longform music video of the year.

He recently earned the No. 1 spot on Billboard magazine’s Hot Christian Adult Contemporary Songwriters list.