Buroughs winning another medal is very impressive

I think American fans take for granted how special it is for Jordan Burroughs to win a medal at the World Championships (and Olympic Games) year after year.  Every generation of athlete faces unique obstacles that makes their success even more impressive.  For Burroughs to get on the podium, he has to beat a ton of Russians working together to beat him.

It's a peculiar situation.  The former Soviet Union has a lot of great wrestling countries.  Not very long ago, most of those athletes would not have been eligible to participate in the championships.  This year, six of the top 11 teams are former Soviet countries (1. Russia, 3. Kazakhstan, 5. Georgia, 9. Azerbaijan, 11. Uzbekistan).  The increased number of countries with great wrestling traditions and athletes is good for the sport.

What isn't good for the sport is that many of the wrestlers on those teams don't actually train in those countries.  In fact, they're not from them at all.  It's complicated for, let's say, a Georgian athlete who might have grown up across the border and wrestled at a club with his buddies and then ended up representing different countries.  Most of that is actually acceptable.  I don't even think it's outrageous  for Russian countries to share athletes because, after all, a lot of those countries are still "unified" in many ways.  Growing up in Dagestan or North Ossetia and competing for Russia or Uzbekistan or Georgia or another former Soviet country makes sense.  For example, Georgy Ketoev was born in Tbilisi, Georgia and won a world title and Olympic bronze for Russia then became a naturalized citizen of Armenia and won an Olympic bronze for them.

Heck, in the 2000 Olympics, David Musulbes (Russia) defeated Artur Tamayzov (Uzbekistan) in the gold medal match and they were both from North Ossetia.  That's confusing to Americans, however, it's more complicated than we think.  Like mentioned above, the former unified countries are still pretty unified.  But what about Bahrain, Hungary, France and several others?  Why do they have wrestlers from Dagestan on their rosters at the World Championships?

I think it's ludicrous that Burroughs has to beat several Russian athletes wrestling for other countries.  It's the real life Ivan Drago scenario played out in several matches.  Legend says that when Dan Gable was competing, the Soviet Union tried to find the perfect combination of skills wrapped up in one wrestler who could take out Gable at the Olympic Games.  It didn't work and wrestling fans believe the Ivan Drago character in Rocky IV is based on the pursuit to beat Gable.  Today, all of the skills needed to be competitive in a match against Burroughs are distributed to a few wrestlers from the Caucasus Mountains who wear the colors of a different country.  Currently, the Drago idea looks more like sending kryptonite to a bunch of countries in order to get more chances on the mat to beat Burroughs (Superman).  And if not beat him, at the least wear him out before the showdown with Russia.  The percentages to beat Burroughs are much higher when you have more chances to put him through the gauntlet compared to everything being wrapped up in one person.  The old way didn't work to beat Gable or Burroughs, but the new scheme is proving to be more taxing on Burroughs than any of us can imagine.

This year, Burroughs had to take a beating from a very skilled wrestler from Belarus in the first round, just squeaking out a gutsy win.  Then it was a professional MMA athlete in his second match.  Yes, literally a fighter.  Murad Kuramagomedov is a pro fighter from Dagestan who competes internationally as a wrestler for Hungary.  This is proving to be a great way for Russia to beat up on Burroughs before their star Zaurbek Sidakov gets his shot.   It took a final second push out for Sidakov to beat Burroughs in the semis yesterday.  I'm certain the three Russians he had to beat to get there played a large part in those closing seconds.  To be fair, the Belarus and Azerbaijan athletes appear to actually be from those countries, which are both former Soviet countries.

What can be done about this?  I'm not sure anything can be.  If a country is fine with an organized state-sponsored doping program, they'll do whatever they can to accomplish their goals.  Shifting a few athletes around seems to be the most effective way to chip away at Burroughs.  This is why his 8-consecutive years on the podium is so impressive.