No one at this weekend's U.S. Olympic Wrestling Trials has had an easy path

I was Googling a fair amount over the last two days to scout for background on the multitude of wrestlers who will converge in Iowa City for Saturday and Sunday's U.S. Olympic Wrestling Team Trials.

It wasn't difficult to find compelling stories, and I appreciate the sources who those I am borrowing from. I linked and credited them. Don't hesitate to read some of that good work.

I don't think there's much that is really pure amateurism in sports these days, and wrestlers get a little money for this and that. But this is pretty close to starving artists devoting themselves to their crafts. And they all seem to think it's worth it.

How could anyone not like that?

Danny Felix is 38 years old. He will try to become an Olympian this weekend, at 55 kg in freestyle. He is an assistant coach at West Virginia. He says on Twitter that he's also a custom airbrush artist. His Twitter name is @Toxicpaint9.

But he's mostly a wrestler, I'm guessing.

"A BIG thanks to @sammiehenson for such great preparation," Felix tweeted on Wednesday. "Pushing my mind & body through all pain & barriers along the way."

"I'm a warrior, a bit crazy and hungry! I embrace it. I'm ready to scrap toe to toe. You hit me and I'll hit you, let's see who's standing"

Henry Cejudo won an Olympic gold medal in 2008. Is he on some sort of pedestal? Well, yes and no. He is because of what he did. But this weekend he's just another tough guy in a singlet, trying to get back on the Olympic freestyle team at 55 kilograms (121 pounds).

Cejudo wrote the following on his  Web site:

The return of the Champion! Oh, let me be the first to tell you there's nothing glamorous about a comeback! It's not like in the movies, not at all. I've had the chance to be back training twice a day and even living the OTC dorm life…as a cave man. The daily hunger I see in these guys on the mat every day at practice is that of a starving lion!

I'm not gonna lie, it was a rough transition… having to trade in the silk pajamas for a sticky, post-practice drenched warmup. Or having to change my alarm clock from noon to 5 a.m., but the transition has been made. I'm back in the zone and every minute I spend on the mat, I spend it with a 2nd place mentality. I'm climbing that mountain just like every other guy on the mat. I share the hunger of a starving lion with these guys! I'm ready to fight like I did back in the Phoenix apartments when I was a kid. This time though, not for Mexican ice cream but for London Gold.

Martin Berberyan has wrestled in the last three Summer Olympics. For Armenia. He has never medaled.

From 2000 to 2002, he served at the Ministry of Defense of Armenia.

He moved to southern California in 2006, got married, had a daughter, and got his U.S. citizenship late last year. Now he is in the freestyle 60 kg field this weekend, trying to represent the United States in London.

Rulon Gardner is 40. It has to be an old 40.

Gardner won the biggest upset in his sport's history, defeating Russian Aleksandr Karelin for a Greco-Roman gold medal in 2000. Karelin had been undefeated in 13 years of international competition. Karelin hadn't allowed a point in six years before his defeat.

Showing he wasn't a one-year wonder, Karelin won gold at the World Championships the following year.

In 2002, Gardner went snowmobiling with some friends in Wyoming. He was separated from them. At one point, he fell into a river. He built a shelter and hoped to be rescued, but was stranded for the next 18 hours. He finally was found, but was suffering from hypothermia and severe frostbite. He would lose the middle toe on his right foot. He only has partial feeling in his remaining toes.

Two years later, he again won the U.S. Olympic Trials, but didn't repeat as a medalist in the Summer Games.

In 2004, Gardner was driving a motorcycle that collided with a car in Colorado Springs. He only suffered minor injuries.

He left amateur wrestling behind. He dabbled in mixed martial arts, winning his one professional bout before walking away from that.

In 2007, Gardner and two other men survived a crash into Utah's Lake Powell in a light aircraft. The men had to swim for almost two hours in 44-degree water to reach shore, but none suffered life-threwhen a light aircraft he was traveling in crashed into Lake Powell, Utah. The men swam an hour in 44 °F (7 °C) water to reach shore, and then spent the night without shelter. His friends had severe hypothermia, but none of the three men sustained life-threatening injuries.

He let his weight sky to 474 pounds, so he became a contestant on "The Biggest Loser." He quit the show before the season ended, deciding he wanted to focus on a return to wrestling.

As of Thursday, he was still about 15 pounds over the 264.5-pound weight limit in Greco-Roman's heavyweight division, so he's battling just to be eligible to take the mat in Iowa City this weekend.

Gardner told the Los Angeles Times the following in this story:

“I'm a wrestler with nine toes. I'm a wrestler who has been through a lot of battles. I get to do a lot of motivational speaking and people are blown away and say, ‘You never quit. You keep coming back.' You know what? Life is too short. You can look at what you didn't accomplish or look at what you can accomplish, and I'm going to go out and accomplish more in my future. I think my best days are ahead of me.”

Trent Paulson and Travis Paulson are twins. They wrestled at Iowa State. They live in Ames. Travis is an Iowa State assistant coach.

Trent was on the U.S. World Championships team in 2009. Travis was on the U.S. World team in 2010. Along the way in that year's World Trials, Travis defeated Trent.

Trent is at 74 kilos this week, Travis at 84 kilos. So, there's no way one will deny the other an Olympic berth.

"I wrestled a lot of the guys at the next weight and felt I could make the team there," Travis said in this Omaha World-Herald story. "For the opportunity for us both to be on the Olympic team, it was worth a shot."

Kristie Davis quit wrestling after finishing third in the 2008 Olympic Trials in women's wrestling. She lost in the Olympic Trials final at her weight in 2004.

She had medaled in World Championships nine different years, the most by any woman. She won two World titles. But in Olympic years, no such luck.

She has three daughters, the oldest of whom is 14 and was raised alone by Davis before she met her current husband.

"I didn't have anything to fall back on," Davis told the Albany Times Union. "I was tired of being hurt, and then you look and you're like, 'I put all these years into wrestling, and I didn't put anything into my education.' "

So she focused on getting a degree in kinesiology and exercise science at Oklahoma City University. And she will advance to nursing school after she graduates, at age 33.

But she found she couldn't quit wrestling after all. And she's chasing the only thing she didn't accomplish before, which is to make an Olympic team.

"(The Olympics were) always there in the back of my mind. It's the one thing that I didn't get that I would love to achieve, but I really think that I just came back because I love competing, and I love the sport."

These are just a few of the stories that will fill Carver-Hawkeye Arena Saturday and Sunday. Wrestlers who are just beginning their quests for Olympic spots. Wrestlers who have been unable to resist the siren's call of one more try. All have had great successes in the sport. All want a greater success, the greatest success.

I'm really looking forward to covering this.