Jake Varner and Jordan Burroughs display their Olympic gold medals after their championship matches at the 2012 London Olympic Games. John Sachs photos

At the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, England, the United States won four medals in wrestling, including two individual Olympic champions. 

Going back to the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, wrestling has been a leader in producing medals for the United States. Only track and field, swimming and diving have won more medals for Team USA.

Three of the 2012 Olympic medals came in men’s freestyle wrestling, with gold medalists Jordan Burroughs (74 kg) and Jake Varner (96 kg), as well as bronze medalist Coleman Scott (60 kg). These athletes not only represented their nation, their families and their hometowns in London, they also represented the USA Wrestling Regional Training Center (RTC) where they trained on a daily basis.

Jordan Burroughs trains at the RTC at the University of Nebraska. Jake Varner trains with the Nittany Lion RTC at Penn State. Coleman Scott trains at the RTC at Oklahoma State.

Many of USA Wrestling’s Regional Training Centers are affiliated directly with college wrestling programs. It is a perfect example of how USA Wrestling and college wrestling can work together for the benefit of each other’s programs as well as for sport in our nation.

All seven members of the 2012 U.S. Olympic men’s freestyle team trained at a USA Wrestling Regional Training Center. In fact, all 21 members of the 2012-2013 U.S. National Team in men’s freestyle wrestling trained full-time at a college wrestling campus.

“The results tell you why it works. Our Olympic team all came from Regional Training Centers. It shows that the model of a National Team and Regional Training Centers produces medals,” said National Freestyle Coach Zeke Jones.

Jones is quick to remind people that this is nothing new. The link between college wrestling and the Olympic Games in freestyle wrestling goes back generations, and the creation of formal regional training sites for Olympic hopefuls has been paying benefits for decades.

“It’s really nothing new. A guy named Art Martori had the vision over 30 years ago, when he married a wrestling club, the Sunkist Kids, with a university atmosphere at Arizona State. It worked then and it works now. Many other places are doing it today,” said Jones.

The benefits are also apparent to those who are working daily in the community to support and build the Regional Training Centers.

“The RTCs have made a major impact,” said Lou Rosselli, coach with the Ohio Regional Training Center and associate head coach at Ohio State. “It helps the college programs grow, and it helps the international programs grow. The coaches at the RTCs are on the same page as the National Coach. It has helped with consistency in their training. They have coaches to watch over them and help them improve. It is essential for us to win on the international stage.”

There are specific requirements which a training location must meet in order to become an official Regional Training Center with USA Wrestling. For starters, there must be a specific international-style training schedule, a coaching staff which is certified through the National Coaches Education Program in the international styles and a pool of athletes that meet specific achievement levels. An application process is in place, where USA Wrestling can evaluate each location to determine if it meets these criteria.

To be an effective Regional Training Center, Jones identifies four key elements: quality coaches, freestyle training partners, a focused schedule of events and training opportunities and a commitment to provide consistent support for all three of these vital areas.

“The goal is for wrestlers to have expert coaching, training partners at the Senior and collegiate levels, and a training and competition schedule that works harmoniously with the National Team and helps them to reach their goals of winning medals,” said Jones.

Consider Olympic champion Jake Varner, a two-time NCAA champion for Iowa State who quickly rose on the international scene. At the conclusion of his successful college career in the spring of 2012, Varner moved to Penn State to train with the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club. This is where Varner made his run for Olympic glory.

He had access to outstanding freestyle coaches, including Olympic champion Cael Sanderson, Casey Cunningham, Cody Sanderson and others. He was part of a stable of full-time freestyle wrestlers, including U.S. World Team member Les Sigman and Puerto Rico Olympians Jaimie Espinal and Franklin Gomez. Varner had regular freestyle workouts and a full domestic and international competition schedule. There was also a large group of wrestling supporters affiliated with Penn State wrestling that provided the resources and the commitment to allow Jake and his teammates to continue to develop and improve over time.

Olympic champion Jordan Burroughs is another great example. After his college career at Nebraska was finished in 2011 with two NCAA titles and a Dan Hodge Trophy, he jumped right into international freestyle with the RTC at Nebraska. He was coached by Mark Manning, Brian Snyder and others. Olympic hopefuls Raymond Jordan, Craig Brester and others trained alongside him. He entered all of the most important events and found immediate success. Burroughs has won every competition he has entered, claiming a World and Olympic title with 38 straight victories.

“We place 4-6 Senior athletes and an Olympic-caliber coach together. They then have college partners to train with them as well. It becomes a reoccurring feeder program. Those college kids become the next Seniors in that program on the local level,” said Jones.

Rosselli, who was a 2012 Olympic coach and the personal coach for Olympian Tervel Dlagnev as well as a number of national team members, understands how the Regional Training Centers provide both the financial and the personal support needed by potential Olympians.

“It gives them an opportunity to continue to wrestle. This gives them to chance to keep competing. Without the funding and without the support, I don’t know if they can keep wrestling for the United States,” said Rosselli.

The Regional Training Center gives a tremendous amount back to the college wrestling program, the college campus and the surrounding community.

“It’s WIN WIN,” said Jones. “You have a mentorship relationship. A world-class wrestler is mentoring collegiate Olympic hopefuls. The college program feeds into the international program seamlessly. In these small communities such as at many colleges, having an Olympian walking around is a great benefit. It is not only good for the wrestler, it is good for the people of that city, as they interact with the people, the children and the families. They intertwine with that community, bring a positive light and share the message of Olympism with folks in their town.”

Rosselli understands how it all works together, as an Olympic coach in the USA Wrestling program, as a Regional Training Center coach and as an assistant coach at a major Div. I wrestling power. He sees benefits to everyone involved.

“When you get elite wrestlers in elite Regional Training Centers, it also attracts the best high school wrestlers in the nation to that college. It helps both sides, the college world and the international freestyle world. They are both a catalyst for wrestling to grow and improve in the United States,” said Rosselli.

Jones stresses that this works so well because the people in the community surrounding a Regional Training Center take ownership and pride in the success of the wrestlers who train there.

“It is their program. I am here to support them. We are working together to help their wrestlers win World and Olympic medals. There are really important relationships developed. We have many good people who care. With that in place, we are starting to get some of the results we want,” said Jones.