Burroughs Eyes Golden Opportunity

If you want to see the world through American freestyle wrestler Jordan Burroughs point of view, just go to his website (alliseeisgold.com). This web address sums up the focus of a young man with a long list of accolades and his eyes on the prize.

Growing up in New Jersey, Burroughs took home the state wrestling title in 2006 in the 135 pound weight division. He’s grown some since high school and so has his list of achievements.

Burroughs went on to wrestle at the University of Nebraska where he came ranked seventh in the country in his weight class. He won a Big 12 title as a sophomore but really came into his own during his junior season. Wrestling in the 157-pound weight class as a junior, Burroughs captured his first NCAA title.

A knee injury forced Burroughs to take a medical redshirt the next season, but he would come back even bigger and better.  Wrestling at 165 pounds his senior year, Burroughs went undefeated and captured another NCAA Championship.

The competitive fire kept burning, and Burroughs jumped right into the international wrestling scene after leaving Nebraska. The weight classes were in kilograms instead of pounds, but the results were just as mind boggling. Now wrestling at 74 kilograms (163.142 pounds), Burroughs won two gold medals in 2011, the first at the World Wrestling Championships in Istanbul and the second at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara.

It’s almost as if Jordan Burroughs just doesn’t know how to lose. If that trend holds true come Olympic time in London, they had better clear a spot at the top of the podium because all he sees is gold.