Who am I?
If I'm not the champion.
Everyone calls me Champ.
I've been the champ for such a long
period of time. I've won so much on
the biggest stage and now here I am
humiliated.
And embarrassed in front of the
entire world.
Hi I'm Katelyn Ohashi
and today we are in New York with
Jordan Burroughs the
gold medalist going
into 2016
and
do you wanna talk about that for a little bit.
For sure well I think that you
like when you go into an event and
you only think about one
thing and that's to win.
When that doesn't happen for you
it's devastating.
You have to rebuild yourself
somehow mentally psychologically
afterward because you question
everything at that point.
Now everything you have
done seems like a failure like the
last three years that I prepared
for this have went
to waste. I'm a much better athlete
than I was four years ago but
I was a champion four years ago and
now I'm nothing.
I took a lot of time off after
2016.
Because I was just so.
I was just beat up physically and
mentally I was like I need a break
I need some time away and I was
contemplating I didn't want to come back
because I was embarrassed that I
physically couldn't do it anymore
but I was just like if I come back.
People are going to see me and I
have to face the questions
of why I didn't perform at my best
at my last competition.
I took maybe two to three
months off and I went to a training
camp and I wrestled
with one of the guys on Team USA
did really well and I'm like Damn
I can remember texting my wife that
night and I was like I'm pretty
good still.
She was like duh.
She was like, no crap, like of
course you're still good you had
one freakin bad day.
She was like trying to snap me out
of it like I was delirious.
She's like snap out of it.
You're fine you're gonna go back
you're going to wrestle.
You had a bad day.
It happens to everyone.
My coaches.
They actually came back.
And they sat on my couch across
from me like what do you want to do?
When you stepped into this realm in
this arena of sport.
You say you want to be the best
ever. You wanted to break the
record for most World and Olympic
titles.
And be the best that this country
has ever seen. And I'm like.
Yeah.
I do.
And I was like well what's changed.
And I'm like.
Nothing really.
And there I was like Yes it's hard
it's just gonna take you a little
longer to get to where you want to
be but like the goal is
still intact.
Is just one less tournament that
you get to do it at.
I think, that really kind of
changed my perspective as I was
like wow I can still do
this.
There's still gold to be had
right there still wins on the table
just like fun to be had moments
to be captured.
You talked a lot about 2016
and overcoming a lot of struggles
and hardships.
What would the perfect Tokyo 2020
look like for you.
For sure. Gold, gold for me.
I want to win.
I don't have to win.
It's not necessary for me to feel
like I accomplished what I wanted
to accomplish in my career.
But I would like to think
that leading up to
Tokyo I'm approaching it the same
way I approached 2016
just with a little more perspective
a lot more perspective let's say it
that way.
And a lot
of people are in my corner that
have encouraged me
and shown me that I'm much more
than what I do.
And so regardless of how Tokyo
turns out whether I make the team
or not whether I perform at my
highest level or not I still
feel good about who I am and
what I'll do moving forward.
But yer when I go into
2020 the expectation is to
go make an Olympic team
and go kick some butt.
Awesome. Well thank you so much.
And keep your eye out
for Jordan on his journey to
Tokyo 2020.