US Men’s Wrestling: Golden Hip Tosses

George | August 12, 2012 | 0 Comments

The US Men’s Wrestling contingent has won 2 gold medals for the first time since Atlanta in 1996.

Today America’s Jake Varner defeated Ukraine’s Valeri Andriitsev in the 96kg Freestyle event. He was able to defeat the Ukrainian 1-0, 1-0 to bring home gold. He made it the final event with a come from behind victory over Georgia’s George Gogshelidze and a quarter finals win over Canada’s Khetag Pliev. The 26 year old was a two-time NCAA champion his Junior and Senior year. Varner has been training under the great Cael Sanderson, ’04 Olympic Gold Medalist. Sanderson took Varner under his wing while he was a coach at Iowa State and that carried on. US Freestyle Coach Zeke Jones told ESPN about the relationship between the two, “Jake watched Cael win a gold medal as a kid. Came to Iowa State because he had that same goal. When they were there, Cael mentored him, coached him and became his friend. From that moment, they had a dream together that said, ‘I want to be the best in the world. I want to be the best in the world. And Jake did — and Cael got to be a part of that.”

American’s other Men’s wrestling gold medal was won by Jordan Burroughs in the 74 KG weight class. Burroughs is a beast in what i call real wrestling! He has won every tournament he has entered since 2009. He was able to defeat the Iranian Sadegh Goudarzi 1-0,1-0 to bring home gold. His semifinal match was his biggest test as he was able to fight past Russian Denis Tsargush. Burroughs was also a two-time national champion at Nebraska in his weight classes. He carries a little WWF (yes WWE is a lie) swagger but he backed it up! The Chicago Tribune quoted him as saying “I’m ready to wrestle anyone who steps across that line, If the Queen of England came out on the mat, I would probably double-leg her. I was ready to go. I had my crosshairs, my target on a gold medal.”