Mark Schultz

Schultz was the assistant wrestling coach at Brigham Young University from 1991 to 1994, when he was named head coach. In 1993, Schultz had a submission grappling match with Rickson Gracie, a practitioner of a martial art known as Gracie Jiu - Jitsu. Rickson is one of the greatest all-time "No-Holds-Barred" rules fighters and could be considered the greatest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner ever. At the time, only two non-Gracie family members were Gracie Jiu-Jitsu black belts. One was 8th degree black belt Pedro Sauer. Mark fought in UFC IX with Sauer in his corner. Pedro, a 150-lb martial arts master had a widely publicized "No-Holds-Barred" rules fight with a 250-lb bodybuilder, Mr. Utah, Lance Bachelor. On January 23, 2016, Mark earned a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu black belt under Sauer.

Mark Schultz attended Palo Alto High, where he was coached by Ed Hart. He competed first in gymnastics, winning the Northern California All-Around Gymnastics Championships for his age group. During his junior year in high school, he moved to Ashland, Oregon and switched to wrestling. After one semester he transferred back to Palo Alto, but was declared ineligible, ending the year with a 4–6 record. As a senior he did not win any tournaments until the state qualifiers where Schultz won the league, region, section, and the state. He is the only California High School state champion wrestler never to win a regular season tournament. Mark never trained with Dave until the summer after Mark's Senior year.

After eight years in retirement from wrestling competition, Schultz became the first Olympic gold medalist to enter the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Schultz replaced Dave Beneteau at UFC 9 in 1996, facing off against the Canadian Gary Goodridge. He won the bout by doctor stoppage due to a cut. Schultz was paid $50,000 for his victory. Schultz is ranked by bloodyelbow.com as the greatest wrestler in UFC history. He suffered damage to his back in the fight. At the time, he was a coach of wrestling at Brigham Young University.

On January 26, 1996, Mark's brother Dave Schultz, who had worked as a coach for the "Team Foxcatcher" for multimillionaire philanthropist John Eleuthère du Pont, was shot and killed by Du Pont who had been displaying increasingly odd behavior in the months before the murder. Four months after Dave's murder, Mark competed in and won an early mixed martial arts event at UFC 9. Mark Schultz joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1991.

At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Mark Schultz did a illegal move called the double wrist lock which disqualified him from the competition.

He and his late older brother Dave Schultz, also a wrestler, were noted for both winning gold medals in wrestling in the same Olympics (1984). They are the only American brothers to win both World and Olympic Gold; they won more NCAA, U.S. Open, World, and Olympic titles than any other American brother combination in history.

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. When Schultz won another World Championship in 1987, he became the first Olympic Champion to add two additional World titles; he also tied Lee Kemp's U.S. record for World golds. In 1991, Mark Schultz, Lee Kemp, and John Smith were recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as "The most world titles won by a U.S. wrestler."

Schultz attended UCLA and went 18-8 his freshman year. He transferred to the University of Oklahoma, redshirted, and in the following three years (1981–83) won three NCAA Championships. Schultz was the NCAA Champion his sophomore year at 167 lbs. His junior year Schultz moved up to 177 lbs where he faced two-time NCAA Champion (1980, 1981) Ed Banach and former NCAA Champion (at 167 lbs in 1980) Matt Reiss. Banach was on track to become the first 4-time NCAA champion in history; however, Schultz beat Banach 16-8 in "one of, if not the best, NCAA finals match of all time" and was named Outstanding Wrestler for the tournament. In his senior year, Schultz went undefeated and set the University of Oklahoma record for most victories in a single season without a loss. Schultz was also named University of Oklahoma's "Big 8" medallion winner for outstanding senior male student-athlete.

Mark Philip Schultz (born October 26, 1960) is an American Olympian 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, the California Wrestling Hall of Fame, and the San Mateo Peninsula Sports 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; first-born Dave was 17 months older. They had two half-siblings, Michael and Seana. Schultz is of half Ukrainian Jewish and half British descent. His paternal grandparents were Estelle (Bernstein), the daughter of a prominent paper company executive, and Maxwell L. Schultz, a business consultant. The boys attended local schools. Schultz got interested in gymnastics and started competing.