LONDON – Dremiel Byers has spent years thinking about an Olympic medal. It’s come to the point he talks about the medal as if it were a person.

“We’ve never met,” Byers said. “But we will. Me and the medal, we will meet.”

For Byers, a sergeant first class at Fort Carson, this trip to England could be his final chance to wear an Olympic medal around his neck. He’s 37. This isn’t ancient by Greco-Roman wrestling standards, but he’s not going to last forever, either.

He’s delivered a superlative career, winning the 2002 World Championship and finishing seventh at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The one thing lacking, and Byers is quick to admit this truth, is the Olympic medal. Byers will compete Monday.

“It’s the one thing I haven’t done,” said Byers, who will compete in the 264.5-pound category. “It’s the reason I do this. It haunts you. It drives you. It definitely motivates you very much to get up and work.”

When he says the medal motivates him to get up, Byers means the words literally. Back in Colorado Springs, he often awakens in the middle of the night. He’s restless, thinking of that medal.

He drives to the Fort Carson gym, arriving at 2 and 3 in the morning. He works out, relaxes in the sauna and plots strategy.

He’s relentless, but he’s not humorless. Byers is the grand old man of the Greco wrestling team. He likes to tease his teammates. Some weigh half as much as he does.

Spenser Mango, who weighs 122 pounds, enjoys teasing back. He said he calls Byers, “Old Faithful.”

A few minutes later, this description was passed along to Byers.

“Old Faithful? What?” he said, shaking his head. “Nobody calls me that to my face. What does that mean? Like I’m a geyser of something? I’m going to choke Mango for that.”

Byers apparently never caught Mango. Days after Byers’ announcement, Mango’s neck remained intact.

To get away from the pressures of work at Fort Carson and the unrelenting expectations found on the mat, Byers enjoys riding his 2010 Road Glide Harley Davidson. He takes rides to Bishop’s Castle outside Pueblo and to the Royal Gorge.

“It relaxes me,” Byers said. “I just look at all the scenery. A few weeks ago, I saw a whole bunch of elk crossing the road. It was awesome.”

Byers grew up in Kings Mountain, N.C., population 9,693. Kings Mountain always will remain his hometown, he said.

But Colorado Springs, his home since 1997, has claimed his heart.

“It’s spoiled me, living here,” Byers said. “I could never live somewhere without mountains.”

He spends much of his time roaming Colorado – “this beautiful state,” he said – on his Harley, admiring the scenery, enjoying the peace.

No matter where he roams, the medal follows him.

“It’s there,” he said. “Everywhere I turn it’s there. And it’s normal for it to be there.”

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