U.S. wrestler wins gold to meet own expectations

LONDON — It’s not bragging if you can do it.

Jordan Burroughs, 24-year-old wrestler from Sicklerville, N.J., has a Twitter account and a tattoo. On Twitter, he’s @alliseeisgold. The tattoo on his chest says, “Dream It, Do It.”

Burroughs was quicker and stronger than everybody Friday, and in the gold-medal 163-pound wrestling match, he made good on all his multilayered confidence when he beat Iran’s Sadegh Goudarzi 1-0, 1-0 in a best-of-three-periods match at the ExCeL Centre.

PHOTOS: London Olympics, Day 14

Besides the gold medal, Burroughs also earned $250,000 from a program begun in 2009 for wrestlers called “Living the Dream Medal Fund,” designed to offer prize money to Olympic medalists.

“I’m ready to wrestle anyone who steps across that line,” Burroughs said. “If the Queen of England came out on the mat, I would probably double-leg her. I was ready to go. I had my cross hairs, my target on a gold medal.

“A lot of people call it cocky, call it overconfidence. But I knew I was going to win.”

This was Burroughs’ 38th straight freestyle wrestling win, and he was seeded No. 1 in the weight class. That didn’t make winning easy, though.

“You’re supposed to do that; you’re the best guy,” said Zeke Jones, USA Wrestling’s national freestyle coach. “But that’s pressure too.”

Burroughs had also beaten Goudarzi to win the 2011 world championships, but Burroughs seemed cautious until the final 10 seconds of the first period. Striking suddenly, Burroughs grabbed Goudarzi’s knees. When Goudarzi hit the mat there was an audible thud, loud enough to hear even over the huge noise from a large contingent of Iranian flag-wavers.

Then, Burroughs won the second period by bulldozing Goudarzi almost off the mat. Noise erupted from another corner, where American flag-wavers were stomping on the metal stands. That’s where Burroughs ran, leaping over railings and embracing his mother, Janice Burroughs.

During the medal ceremony, Burroughs, who ran out of the tunnel before the start of the match throwing imaginary punches as if he were a boxer, didn’t seem so tough. There might have been a tear in his eye.

“This has been a long time coming,” Burroughs said. “I’ve trained for a number of years, dreamed for a number of years, and I got it done. I had a plan, executed it perfectly, and I’m Olympic champ.”

Before the wrestling competition began, Burroughs had put pressure directly on himself. “I have a lot of charisma, a lot of personality,” he said. “I’m pretty good-looking. I think I’m good for the sport.”

Jones said this golden moment has the chance to propel Burroughs to even better places.

“He can be the face of American wrestling,” Jones said. “He’s put himself in a position to become one of the greatest wrestlers ever.”

And within about 20 minutes of receiving his gold medal, Burroughs had already posted a photo of himself and the medal on Twitter.

The photo had a caption.

“I did it! 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist!”

Again, hard to argue.

diane.pucin@latimes.com

twitter.com/mepucin