Top Stories of the Decade

Golden Years: Jordan Burroughs Doubles His Way Into a Decade of Gold

By Eric Olanowski

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (December 23) -- Every path to greatness starts with a first step on the mat. For Jordan Burroughs, it was  July 23, 2011, when the future Hall of Famer made his international debut, at the International Ukrainian Tournament in Kyiv. 

Nine years later he hasn’t stopped to look back.

Over the course of the next 31 months, the American youngster would go on a 69-match win streak that spanned 31 months which included a pair of world championships (2011, 2013) and a gold medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Burroughs’ unprecedented 69-match win streak ended on February 2, 2014, with a nail-biting loss to fellow American Nick MARABLE. The Team USA captain settled for a bronze medal at the 2014 World Championships in Tashkent but rebounded in 2015 winning his third career world championship in Las Vegas. 

After a disappointing finish at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro Burroughs has won the 2017 World Championships in Paris and finished with bronze medals at the 2018 and 2019 world championships, losing razor-thin 1-point matches to two-time defending world champion Zaurbek SIDAKOV.

Since 2011 Burroughs has collected a world medal in 8 of 9 world-level events: 1 Olympic gold, 4 world championship gold, and 3 world championship bronze. He’s also taken gold at six world cups, three Pan Am championships and three Pan Am Games. 
 

#WrestleSamokov

Japan defends U20 Worlds women's team title

By Vinay Siwach

SAMOKOV, Bulgaria (August 22) -- Japan defended its Women's Wrestling team title at the World U20 Championships in Samokov, Bulgaria with two more gold medals on Friday.

The Women's Wrestling competition came to a close in Bulgaria with three weight classes, 50kg, 53kg and 72kg, and Japan won the first two gold medals while India won 72kg. India finished second in the team race with 140 points, 25 less than Japan which had 165 points.

Rinka OGAWA (JPN) won the 50kg gold medal with 9-3 win over three-time age-group world medalist Audrey JIMINEZ (USA) in the final. Ogawa gave up the first takedown but she hit a single-leg and turn to lead 4-2 at the break.

The second period was more scrappy but Ogawa gave up just a reversal while four points to win 8-3. The United States challenged at the end of match but there was no points for Jiminez and one more point to Ogawa's score for the lost challenge.

This was Jiminez's third loss to a Japanese wrestler in finals of World Championships. She lost to Umi ITO (JPN) in the World U20 and U23 finals in 2022 and 2023 respectively. Her one other loss came to Yanrong LI (USA) in 2023 at the World U20 Championships. She will now look to change her fortunes at the senior World Championships in Zagreb next month.

Japan's second gold cane with Natsumi MASUDA (JPN) who defeated European U20 champion Anastasiia POLSKA (UKR) in controlled 6-0 final. She scored three takedowns in six minutes for the win and earn herself the gold medal.

At 72kg, world U17 silver medalist last month, KAJAL (IND) managed to survive a fall attempt and a threating Yuqi LIU (CHN) in the final and win her first world U20 title to go with her world U17 gold from 2024.

Kajal used snapdowns to pressure Liu and score three takedowns and lead 6-0 but as the match progressed Liu hit a leg-attack and scored a takedown, and cradle Kajal who barely managed to get out off the lock and keep the 6-4 lead.

Both traded a takedown each in the remainder of the bout but Kajal held on for an 8-6 lead and win the gold medal.

RESULTS

50kg
GOLD: Rinka OGAWA (JPN) df. Audrey JIMENEZ (USA), 9-3

BRONZE: SHRUTI (IND) df. Josephine WRENSCH (GER), 6-0
BRONZE: Na HU (CHN) df. Diana RYSOVA (UKR), 7-5

53kg
GOLD: Natsumi MASUDA (JPN) df. Anastasiia POLSKA (UKR), 6-0

BRONZE: SAARIKA (IND) df. Ilona VALCHUK (POL), 11-0
BRONZE: Kseniya KOSTSENICH (UWW) df. Abigale COOPER (USA), 11-10

72kg
GOLD: KAJAL (IND) df. Yuqi LIU (CHN), 8-6

BRONZE: Kristina BRATCHIKOVA (UWW) df. Haticenur SARI (TUR), 17-12
BRONZE: Kaiyrkul SHARSHEBAEVA (KGZ) vs. Jasmine ROBINSON (USA), via inj. def.