"They thought they had killed me"- Jordan Burroughs opens up on his motivation for winning the U.S. Wrestling World team trials

By Animesh Pandey

Modified Sep 17, 2024 04:42 GMT

Jordan Burroughs is back in style. The former Olympic champion has qualified for the 10th time for Team USA competing at the UWW World Championships, after winning the US Wrestling World Team Trials. This is even more incredible, given that the 36-year-old wrestler had not made it for the Paris Olympics.

The six-time world champion opened up on his motivation behind winning the World Championships trials. He said,

"....Penn State, and everyone in the arena and in the college, they thought that they'd killed me. They couldn't."

The American grappler further revealed how Penn State [Pennsylvania State University] was responsible for his adversity. Jordan Burroughs said,

"You know, it's been a hard six months for me. It's been a really hard six months for me. I wasn't sure if I was going to continue to wrestle. Every day is, you know, trying to battle back from my experience at Penn State. Their fans, their coaches, their wrestlers, they discarded (me), made me feel like an outcast in a sport that I helped build. It's been hard, it's been hard. So this is very satisfying for me, it's very satisfying.”

Burroughs has represented the USA at nine World Championships. He never returned empty-handed, winning six gold and three bronze medals on all nine occasions. He even won an Olympic gold medal in the men's freestyle wrestling [74 kg category] at the London Olympics in 2012. However, he could neither make it beyond the preliminaries at the Rio Olympics in 2016 nor the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

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Jordan Burroughs' performance at the USA Wrestling World Team Trials

Jordan Burroughs of the USA competing at the Wrestling World Championships finals in 2017 [Image for Representational Purposes] [Image Source: Getty]

In August 2024, months after the Olympic trials, Jordan Burroughs announced his return to the wrestling mat for the upcoming World Championships, with an Instagram post captioned:

""Can’t let you guys have all the fun without me. See you in Omaha."

Burroughs began his campaign at the USA Wrestling World Team Trials on a smashing note, defeating Sam Beckett by a thumping margin of 13-0.

Burroughs proceeded to the quarterfinals, where Levi Haines tried to give a tough fight. However, the former Olympic champion overcame the challenge with ease, defeating him by 4-1.

In the semifinals, Burroughs faced the challenge from Alex Dieringer, who gave him a run for the money. However, Burroughs wasn't the one to give up that easily. He defeated the wrestler by 7-4, following which Dieringer left his shoes on the wrestling mat as a sign of his eventual retirement.

Burroughs finally faced Chance Marsteller in a best-of-three. He won both matches without any trouble, by margins of 3-0 and 6-3 respectively. He will now represent the USA at the UWW World Championships 2024, which will be held at Tirana in Albania from 28 to 31 October.