What Jordan Burroughs could mean for wrestling
By Andy Hamilton Des Moines Register Henry Cejudo wrapped the American flag around his shoulders and Olympic gold around his neck three years ago in Beijing, and there was optimism then that USA Wrestling had discovered the next big thing.
Cejudo was 21 and he ruled the world at his weight class. But he hasn’t partici- pated in international competition since, and although he’s planning a comeback with his eyes on London, Cejudo has also stated he’s not in it for the long haul. Neither was Cael Sanderson in 2004. The former Iowa State great won Olympic gold and stepped aside at 25, passing on the prime years of his competitive career to build his coaching resume. Sanderson returned to the mat this summer and placed fifth at the World Championships. But Sanderson is 32 now, the father of two and the head coach at Penn State, and he seems more likely to go back to carrying a whistle than carrying the torch for USA Wrestling beyond 2012. Bill Zadick, the last American to win a
World title, was 33 and nearing the end of his career when he reached the pinna- cle in 2006. Brandon Slay retired after claiming Olympic gold in 2000, just like Tom Brands did four years earlier. Stephen Neal won the World title in 1999 before embarking on a professional foot- ball career that put three Super Bowl rings on his fingers. Meanwhile, USA Wrestling spent two decades looking for the next big thing, the face of the franchise, the guy they could count on annually to bring home gold medals for an extended period, like John Smith did nearly 20 years ago. The sport’s national governing body may have found its man.
Jordan Burroughs, a 23-year-old from Sicklerville, N.J., who won two NCAA titles at Nebraska, completed a rare one- year wrestling trifecta in Istanbul, Turkey. NCAA champion. Hodge Trophy win- ner. World champion.
All in the same calendar year. Neal is the only other wrestler to accomplish those three feats in the same year. Smith might have if the Hodge Trophy existed in 1987 and ’88 when he
38 USA Wrestler
spot in the final series for the Olympic Trials.
Jones told a story about Burroughs’ trip last summer to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
World champion Jordan Burroughs
claimed NCAA titles during his last two seasons at Oklahoma State while begin- ning a string of six consecutive years at the top of his weight class internationally. “America is looking for its next wrestling hero,” USA Wrestling national freestyle coach Zeke Jones said Monday during a layover in Houston on his return trip from Turkey. “We really haven’t had one since John Smith at that level or maybe Dave Schultz. Now we can have a guy like Jordan who has the ability to run off a streak, and I think if he can con- tinue the path he’s on, he can really be something special.”
Burroughs doesn’t look like a one-hit
wonder. He’s still a freestyle neophyte. Prior to April’s U.S. Open, he hadn’t wrestled a freestyle match in nearly three years.
Five months later, he reeled off five consecutive wins on his way to the World title, beating Russian two-time defending World champ Denis Tsargush in the quar- terfinals and Iranian World silver medalist Sadegh Goudarzi for gold at 163 pounds. Burroughs is the first wrestler to collect the $50,000 World gold prize from the Living the Dream Medal Fund implement- ed in 2009 by USA Wrestling. By claiming a World medal, he also earns an auto- matic pass into the best-of-three final series next April at the Olympic Trials in Iowa City. Jake Varner, a two-time NCAA champion at Iowa State and bronze medalist at 211 pounds, also earned a
Nebraska coach Mark Manning brought the Husker star over to talk to Jones about the requisite skills for making the transition from NCAA champion to World champion, about the nuances of freestyle wrestling that don’t exist at the college level. “You could tell his whole senior year of college he worked on them because when he arrived right after the end of his senior year he was proficient in a push- out skill, he was proficient in correcting his stance, he understood strategies and tactics in the clinch,” Jones said. “The great thing is by no means is he maxed out. He could shave another five strokes off his golf game.”
For all of the subtle and obvious differ- ences between folkstyle and freestyle, there’s no currency exchange when it comes to takedowns. Those dynamic double-legs that Burroughs used to blast opponents in college still work against the best wrestlers in the world. Those shots that he used to rack up 71 points along with a default win in five matches in March at the NCAA Championships were still effective against World medalists. Rutgers coach Scott Goodale sat mat- side in March as Burroughs picked apart Scott Winston, scoring a technical fall against the Rutgers No. 8 seed in the NCAA quarterfinals. He wrote a congratu- latory note on Burroughs’ Facebook page.
“I sat in the corner in Philly thinking to myself there is no one on this planet that can beat this guy,” Goodale wrote. “I was right!! Just the start of things to come.” That’s the hope for USA Wrestling. They hope Burroughs carries the torch from the Olympic Trials next April in Iowa City, through the Olympics and beyond. “I don’t know if he’s thinking that way, but I hope so,” said Zadick, the USA Wrestling developmental freestyle coach. “He’s certainly in a position where he could do something pretty special. He could put a string of them together. I hope he’s thinking that way.”
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