Gable Steveson praised Jordan Burroughs in a recent meetup between the two while attending WrestleMania, just a few days before the U.S. Olympic Wrestling Team Trials 2024.
Burroughs will be taking part in the upcoming trials scheduled between April 19 and April 20 at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pennsylvania.
Recently, he was captured having a conversation with now WWE star Steveson, who bagged the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 in the 125kg event as an amateur wrestler. NBC Olympics & Paralympics shared this video on their X (formerly Twitter) handle and captioned it as:
“A couple of Olympic champions at #WrestleMania. 🥇🥇”
In the video, Steveson showed his admiration for Burroughs as he addressed him as the greatest American wrestler of all time. He stated:
“Y 'all know who this is, but let me introduce you real quick. The greatest American wrestler of all time. Six World Championships. 2012 Olympics.”
At the U.S. Olympic Team Trials 2024, Burroughs will be competing in the 74kg weight class. The class also comprises top wrestlers like Jason Nolf, Quincy Monday, Keegan O’Toole, Mitchell Mesenbrink, Carter Starocci, David Carr, and others.
In a bid for his third Olympic Games, Burroughs has to overcome challenges from these aforementioned wrestlers if he meets them on Day 1 of the Trials.
If he emerges on top among all wrestlers at the end of Day 1, he will have to defeat Kyle Dake in the Best-of-Three Championship series on Day 2 of the trials. This will then ensure him a spot in the USA team for the Paris Olympics 2024.
At the U.S. Olympic Team Trials 2020, Dake defeated Jordan Burroughs with the scores of 2-3 and 0-3 in a best-of-three final, denying the latter a place in the USA Olympic team.
A look at Jordan Burroughs’ performance at the Olympics
Jordan Burroughs, who is a six-time world Champion, claimed the gold medal in the 74kg at the London Olympics 2012. In the semis, he got past the two-time world champion Denis Tsargush of Russia in a nail-biting contest 3-1, 0-2, 2-1. Burroughs defeated Iran’s Sadegh Goudarzi by 1-0, 1-0 in the final to become the Olympic champion.
However, Burroughs faced a huge setback during the Rio Olympics 2016 after being defeated by Bekzod Abdurakhmonov in the consolation semifinals. He lost via technical fall, thus returning home without a medal.