> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Olympic champion Gable Steveson brings a lesson in resilience to Pali High wrestlers
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/olympic-champion-gable-steveson-brings-a-lesson-in-resilience-to-pali-high-wrestlers/
- Published: 2026-10-02T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T15:59:59.000Z
- Author: Michelle Edgar
- Tags: Community, Pacific Palisades

A visit to the newly opened LUDUS gym gave student-athletes a close-up look at elite training and another place to reconnect as Pacific Palisades rebuilds

Olympic wrestling champion and UFC heavyweight Gable Steveson stepped onto the mats at LUDUS in Palisades Village on the evening of Sept. 16, but the gathering was about more than watching an elite athlete prepare for competition. For members of the Palisades Charter High School wrestling team, it marked a return to their neighborhood and a reminder that the community spaces lost after the January 2025 fire are beginning to come back.

Steveson had been training at LUDUS ahead of his Sept. 19 bout against Sean Sharaf at UFC 331 at Crypto.com Arena. He opened a session to the Pali High wrestlers, giving the students an opportunity to watch his preparation and meet the Olympic gold medalist in the gym, which opened in August.

LUDUS grew out of the fire's disruption. MAX Impact, the gym that preceded it, was destroyed, along with the homes of instructors James Gavsie and Freddy Cerrato and LUDUS co-founder Justin Caruso. Members continued training together in temporary quarters before Gavsie, Cerrato and Caruso opened LUDUS on Aug. 15\. “LUDUS was created with a lot of care and passion for the Palisades community,” Caruso said. “Our goal is for everyone who walks through our doors to leave with greater confidence and resilience. Many of our students are local families who experienced tremendous loss in the fires, so being able to return to their community, come together, and train and learn is incredibly meaningful. We’re proud to be part of that.”

Caruso said Steveson and his team responded immediately when they learned what the Palisades and its young athletes had endured. “I reached out to his team, to Gable, we got connected,” Caruso told the students. “Told them about the Palisades, what happened, and right away they were down to come here to train, to meet you guys, to bring awareness to it.”

The visit carried particular weight for the Pali High team. The fire displaced the school’s roughly 2,400 students to a converted department store beside the 10 Freeway and left its wrestlers without their regular campus and home gym. Students returned this fall for their first full school year on campus since the disaster.

Even amid that instability, the wrestling program won the Marine League championship last year and this year, qualified 17 boys and girls for the City Championships and produced an individual champion. With LUDUS now open, the athletes again have a neighborhood place to train, see friends and build toward the coming season.

Rick Caruso welcomed the students back to both their school and community and told them the adversity they survived would remain a source of strength. “So many people, including our family, view you as courageous,” he said. “You’re strong. You’re tough. You’re disciplined, and in some way, you’re going to be better because of this experience that you had.”

He also pointed to discipline as the connection between Steveson’s career, the students’ athletic ambitions and the work of rebuilding. “Good habits, good things happen,” he said. The evening offered something simple, but important: young athletes back on local mats, together, learning from one of the sport’s best.