Jordan Burroughs Olympic champion, 74 kg
By Craig Sesker LONDON – All he sees is gold. And a whole lot of cash. America has a new golden boy in wrestling after Jordan Burroughs made history by capturing an Olympic gold medal and the $250,000 that goes with it on Aug. 10 at the ExCeL Centre. Burroughs, a 2011 World champion, lived up to his popular Twitter handle of alliseeisgold by scoring takedowns late in the first and second periods to down two- time World silver medalist Sadegh Goudarzi of Iran 1-0, 1-0 in the gold medal freestyle finals at 74 kg/163 lbs. The 24-year-old Burroughs, a New Jersey native who won two NCAA titles at the University of Nebraska, hugged U.S. coaches Zeke Jones and Mark Manning before running around all three mats with an American flag raised above his head. Burroughs then jumped on top of the medal podium and raised the flag as fans stood and roared. He followed by climb- ing into the stands to celebrate with fami- ly, friends and USA fans during an emo- tional scene.
"I'm really excited," Burroughs said. "I've dreamed about doing this for a long time. I had a plan and I executed it per- fectly, and now I'm Olympic champ. This is exhilarating, it's surreal. This is just pure joy for me."
The first period was scoreless before Burroughs powered in on a re-shot, driv- ing Goudarzi to the mat with his trade- mark double-leg takedown with nine sec- onds left.
The second period was scoreless until Burroughs fired in on another double and finished with 11 seconds remaining. Burroughs became the first U.S. wrestler to earn $250,000 from the Living the Dream Medal Fund, which is funded by the wrestling community. Burroughs downed Goudarzi in the
2011 World finals and also beat him in the World Cup this year. Goudarzi also placed second in the World in 2010. "Jordan had a confidence and a swag- ger – he obviously was ready," U.S. Coach Zeke Jones said. "He holds him- self to a high standard. He wants to be
Jordan Burroughs celebrates his gold-medal win. Larry Slater photo.
the best in the World. He wants to be the greatest of all-time. He delivered his best match when he needed to in the finals. He put himself in pretty elite company now that he has won World and Olympic titles."
Burroughs sent out a message on
Twitter the night before he wrestled say- ing the next tweet he would make would be as Olympic champion the next night. "I'm confident and I have high stan- dards," he said. "I knew I was going to win. It's easy to be confident when you work as hard as I do. I would have had to change my Twitter name if I had lost." Burroughs put up a photo with his gold medal and a new tweet late Friday night. “I did it! 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist!” Burroughs posted on Twitter. Burroughs said his Twitter post received thousands of re-tweets just a few hours after his historic win. Burroughs did two press conferences
after he won, and had a full schedule of media appearances the night of his his- toric win and the following day in London.
He appeared on NBC’s “Today Show” the day after striking gold, and appeared on NBC’s “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” the day after he arrived back in the U.S. Burroughs has talked about making a run at the six straight World and Olympic titles that John Smith, one of the U.S. coaches here in London, accomplished for the U.S. from 1987-92. "I'm only 24, and I've got a lot of wrestling left in me," Burroughs said. "I want to be the best ever. Cael Sanderson won (in 2004), and he was done. Henry Cejudo won (in 2008), and he was done. I have plans to wrestle for a number of years. I want to be the face of wrestling. It's a great sport and I love competing in it."
Burroughs is now a remarkable 38-0 on the Senior level.
Burroughs pulled out a clutch win over two-time World champion Denis Tsargush of Russia in the semifinals that many observers called the best match of the Olympics.
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