Wrestling experiences prepared Petersons for ministry

Ask Ben Peterson whether he or his older brother, John, was the better wrestler and he’ll tell you that he was.

“But then I have to tell people that the reality is whichever of us was most intense on any given day was the one who would win,” Ben says.

As two of five boys in the Peterson family, it was natural for Ben and John to wrestle. That’s what boys do. But older siblings also were involved in wrestling and football in high school, and John and Ben followed.

“We played together, we went to school and played sports together,” Ben says. “We were good friends. Yet there was a sibling rivalry between the two of us that was non-ending. I’ve always said that there’s nobody on the face of this earth that I’d rather beat than my brother John, but there’s nobody on the face of this earth that I’d rather watch win than my brother John.”

Shared intensity helped the two become better wrestlers.

“If you’re going to help your teammates, you’re ruthless with them,” Ben says. “You don’t let them by with anything easy. I learned to do that with him to survive at times. He was older, but very quickly, when we started wrestling, I got bigger than him.”

That helped the two to be successful as they grew and went to different colleges, Ben to Iowa State University and John to the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Ben saw success at ISU, winning NCAA championships in 1971 and 1972. John developed as well, winning his college conference championships three times. The two trained for the 1972 Olympics with Iowa State wrestling legend Dan Gable.

Ben won the gold medal in the light heavyweight class at the Munich Olympics while John snagged the silver. But they and the other Olympians were jolted when Palestinian terrorists took Israeli athletes hostage at the Olympic village, eventually killing 11 in all. The Petersons had already finished their medal-winning efforts and were touring when the massacre took place.

“It was really kind of a wake-up call,” Ben says. “I can remember thinking (before the massacre), ‘What’s the deal with all of these wars between all of the countries. We’ve got over a hundred countries with their athletes in the Olympic Village and we’re all living very well together.’

“All of a sudden, it was like, ‘Sports isn’t the answer to the world’s troubles. Christ is.’ Without Christ, we’re always going to have problems in this world.”

By the time the Petersons arrived at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, “security was very definitely different.”

“We had an armed soldier every time our team traveled in the bus,” Ben says.

But 1976 was different in other ways for the Petersons, too.

“All of a sudden everybody knew us,” Ben says. “They had expectations about what Ben and John can and are supposed to do. I had gotten to a place in training with Gable and John that I didn’t go to events hoping that I was going to win. I went prepared and confident that I was ready and I needed to win, or it would be very disappointing.”

That disappointment came in the gold medal match when Ben lost to Levan Tediashvili of the Soviet Union. He was the same wrestler who had defeated John in a lower weight class at the 1972 Olympics.

Ben felt he had made Tediashvili look like he was a better wrestler than he really was.

“Levan was an outstanding wrestler without doubt, but there were ways in which I should have been able to beat him, and I didn’t get it done,” Ben says. (Watch Ben’s 1976 Olympic match with Tediashvili. John is sitting in the background watching his brother.)

John and Ben both continued to have success internationally and in the meantime started Camp of Champs. Their mother, though, had concerns about her two competitive boys being able to get along well enough for the effort to succeed. She called the pastor of the church they both had attended, and expressed her concern that the two would fight to the point that Camp of Champs would fail.

“When I got to the office and the pastor told me why he had called me, I was surprised,” Ben says. “But, I understood what Mom’s concerns were. She perceived that we were still competing when we were doing God’s work. That was a serious reminder that serving God is not a competition, but a team effort.”

Thirty-eight years later, Ben and John are still on the same page. John, who also has ministered around the world, has always let Ben organize the Camp of Champs events. John travels and has worked with the Christian organization Athletes in Action since 1973. Today he does a lot of ministry with college wrestlers in Minnesota.

Their children have also gotten into the action at Camp of Champs. Andy, the only son of Ben and Janet Peterson, is now program director at the camp. Ben and Jan’s daughters, Sarah, Holly, and Katie, have worked in the office, snack shop, and kitchen while Jan coordinates meals. Because of the girls’ volleyball involvement, Camp of Champs started a volleyball camp, but now sub-leases a facility to another volleyball organization. John’s three sons and two daughters have also been involved in Camp of Champs. Two of his sons were wrestlers and the daughters worked in the camp kitchen. John’s one son who didn’t wrestle now brings his son to Camp of Champs Father/Son camp. Another son serves on the Board of Directors.