Jordan Burroughs, the face of U.S. wrestling, now has someone on the freestyle wrestling team to share gold medal glory.
Jake Varner, U.S. freestyle Olympian at 96kg, won the gold medal Sunday morning in London. He defeated 2012 European silver medalist Valerii Andriitsev of Ukraine in the finals, 1-0, 1-0. The two points came courtesy an ankle pick and pushout.
Varner is also the 2011 World bronze medalist for the U.S. in freestyle as well as a two-time NCAA national champion and four-time NCAA finalist.
Along with teammate Burroughs at 74kg, the U.S. had multiple gold medalists on the men’s freestyle team for the first time since 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia. Like Burroughs, Varner will pocket $250,000 for earning his gold medal thanks to the Living The Dream medal fund.
According to Intermat, Varner becomes Iowa State’s sixth Olympic gold medalist in wrestling. He joins Penn State head coach Cael Sanderson, UFC veteran Kevin Jackson, Dan Gable, Ben Peterson, and Glen Brand.