Jordan Burroughs with his Olympic gold medal at his press conference at the ExCel Center in London, England. John Sachs photo

Olympic freestyle wrestling champion Jordan Burroughs placed third in the voting for the U.S. Olympic Committee Male Athlete of the Month for August.

Burroughs was considered among nominees from the other Olympic sports organizations, including numerous athletes who were also successful at the 2012 London Olympic Games. Swimmer Michael Phelps placed first and diver David Boudia placed second in the voting. Of the three, Burroughs is the only one who could only compete for one gold medal.

Jordan Burroughs won a gold medal at 74 kg/163 lbs. in men’s freestyle wrestling at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, England on August 10.

Burroughs,  a 2011 World champion, swept Iran’s Sadegh Goudarzi 1-0, 1-0 in the gold-medal finals at 74 kg/163 lbs. Burroughs also beat Goudarzi in the World Championship finals last year.

He won four matches on the way to the title. He opened with a shutout win over Francisco Soler of Puerto Rico, 4-0, 6-0. In the quarterfinals, he stopped Matt Gentry of Canada, a past NCAA champion from Stanford, by a 2-1, 1-1 margin. His semifinal win was over two-time World champion Denis Tsargush of Russia, 3-1, 0-2, 2-1.

He remains unbeaten in Senior-level freestyle competition, with a 38-0 record. With the victory, Burroughs earned $250,000 from the Living the Dream Medal Fund. He is the first U.S. freestyle wrestler to win a World title and an Olympic title back-to-back since Kurt Angle in 1995 and 1996.

Swimming in seven events in London, Phelps closed out his swimming career by adding six more medals to bring his total to 22 total medals, including 18 golds. Both numbers are the most by any Olympian in any sport. He also defended his back-to-back gold medals in the 100 butterfly, marking the first time ever a swimmer has won the same event in three consecutive Olympic Games. Phelps completed the London Games gold medals in the 100 butterfly, 200 individual medley, 400 medley relay and 800 freestyle relay; while capturing silver in the 200 butterfly and 400 freestyle relay.

Boudia became the first American man to win an Olympic gold medal in 20 years when he won the men’s 10-meter platform gold. He scored 568.65 points to edge China’s Qiu Bo, who won silver at 566.85. Great Britain’s Tom Daley took bronze at 556.95. The last American man was Mark Lenzi when he won the 3-meter springboard contest in 1992. The last American man to win Olympic gold on platform was Greg Louganis in 1988.

Swimmer Missy Franklin won the Female Athlete of the Month. Franklin headed into her first Olympic Games with seven swimming events. The 17-year-old walked away with five medals, including four golds. In the process, she set two world records (400-meter medley relay and 200 backstroke), one Olympic record (800 freestyle relay) and two American records (100 backstroke, 400 freestyle relay). Franklin earned bronze in the 400 freestyle relay and gold in the 100 backstroke, 800 freestyle relay, 400 medley relay and 200 backstroke.

Gymnastics standout Gabby Douglas and track star Allyson Felix earned second and third place in the female vote. Both were Olympic gold medalists.
 
Winning the Team of the Month was the Track and Field 4x100-meter team of Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight and Carmelita Jeter. They won gold and set a world record at the 2012 Olympic Games in a time of 40.82. The women crushed the world record of 41.37 run by East Germany in 1985. The .55 improvement was the largest drop in that event in the modern era.
 
Each National Governing Body may nominate one female, one male and one team per discipline. A voting panel selects the winners from the pool of nominees with online fan voting via Twitter accounting for 10 percent of the total vote.

USOC ATHLETE AND TEAM OF THE MONTH, AUGUST 2012

MALE
1. Michael Phelps, Swimming
2. David Boudia, Diving
3. Jordan Burroughs, Wrestling

FEMALE
1. Missy Franklin, Swimming
2. Gabby Douglas, Gymnastics  
3. Allyson Felix, Track & Field

TEAM
1. Women’s 4x100-meter Team, Track & Field
2. U.S. Women’s Water Polo Team
3. U.S. Women’s Soccer Team