Jordan Burroughs said he was “discarded” and felt like “an outcast” after a defeat at the U.S. Olympic Wrestling Trials in April at Penn State.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue to wrestle,” said Burroughs, a 2012 Olympic gold medalist who is 36 years old. “Every day is trying to battle back from my experience at Penn State, from their fans, from their coaches, their wrestlers.”
Burroughs continued to train and ultimately decided to compete at this past weekend’s trials for October’s world championships at non-Olympic weights.
He won the 79kg division, sweeping Chance Marsteller in Sunday’s best-of-three finals series. In 2023, Marsteller beat Burroughs to make the world championships team in that division.
Worlds are Oct. 28-31 in Albania. Wrestlers who made the U.S. Olympic team for Paris were not eligible to compete for spots on this world team.
Burroughs won his first global title at the 2011 World Championships at 74kg. He followed that with Olympic gold in 2012 and more world titles in 2013, 2015 and 2017 at 74kg.
In 2021 and 2022, he won world titles at 79kg. He reached seven combined Olympic and world titles, breaking his tie with John Smith and Adeline Gray for the most in U.S. wrestling history.
Burroughs’ 10 medals of any color between the Olympics and worlds are second in U.S. history to Bruce Baumgartner‘s 13.
Then this past April at Penn State, he lost in the Olympic Trials 74kg division for a second consecutive time. On his way out of the competition floor, Burroughs responded to at least one person in the crowd who heckled or booed him.
“Even when I hated wrestling and hate the way that I was treated, what I focused on was the fact that if I stayed diligent in my habits, I would be able to make a conscious decision on whether I wanted to wrestle or not,” he said Sunday. “But if I didn’t show up, and I didn’t train, that my body was going to make a decision for me. The old adage goes, if you don’t use it, you lose it. Well, when you’re 36 years old, with five kids at home, it’s easy to lose it, so I just continued to show up to practice.
“There were a lot of days where, if you were to come in and saw me and knowing who I am and what I represent, you would have been surprised at my lack of effort, my lack of zeal, my lack of excitement for being in the wrestling room, doing something that I love. But it took me a long time to fall in love with this sport again, and it took a lot of outside, external circumstances, but ultimately, it took a lot of introspective thinking as to how do I want to stamp my career. Penn State and everyone in that arena in State College, they thought that they killed me. They couldn’t. I’m too resilient.”
Burroughs said Sunday he doesn’t know what his wrestling future holds beyond the fact that he will not compete at 74kg again.
If he wins a 79kg medal next month, he may keep going. USA Wrestling traditionally rewards world championships medalists with a bye into the finals of the following year’s trials.
“In 2024, had to make the weight cut all the way down to 74 kilos,” Burroughs said. “It’s extremely difficult. My body really couldn’t hold up, couldn’t compete the way that I wanted. After this year is trying to figure out what’s next for me.”
Also Sunday, Tokyo Olympic 86kg gold medalist David Taylor won the 92kg division and said he doesn’t know if he will wrestle at worlds.
Taylor, 33, lost in the Olympic Trials in April, then in May became head coach at Oklahoma State and announced his retirement from competition.
Taylor felt so good while coaching and training his Oklahoma State team that he entered trials with the program’s support.
“This whole thing was not about going to world championships,” he said. “You’ve got one chance left to wrestle your last match. Let’s go out and wrestle. Am I going to world championships? I don’t know. I still got to talk to the team. … But right now, I’m just happy to finish this way, and we’ll see what’s next.”
