From London to Lincoln: Olympians share experiences

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by News 5 Sports

Story Created: Aug 28, 2012 at 11:32 AM CDT

Story Updated: Aug 28, 2012 at 9:27 PM CDT

Both Jordan Burroughs in wrestling and Jordan Larson in volleyball will soon return to International Competition. Both of these former University of Nebraska athletes took time last night to accept congratulations on winning their Olympic medals in London earlier this month.

Here is a great moment last night in Lincoln. Husker Athletic Director Tom Osborne embracing Olympic gold medal wrestler Jordan Burroughs. A few days ago, Jordan was hanging with Jay Leno on the Tonight Show with his gold medal here on NBC. This Jordan did his part in London to put wrestling on the map.

"You know, all the fans that love to watch the Olympics but don't particularly like watching wrestling hopefully I gave them a little entertainment because wrestling is not really a fan friendly sport," said Burroughs.

Husker football coach Bo Pelini has been busy getting his team prepared for Saturday's opener with Southern Miss but can't help but to admire what Jordan has done.

"You know, he's a phenomenal athlete and a fierce competitor and he's a guy that I have used as an example for our football team," said Pelini.

That's an unbelievable feat for him, congratulations to him, you know that is something you dream of when you're little, winning an Olympic medal and for the style he did it is unbelievable and I'm happy for him to represent the University of Nebraska the way he did," said running back Rex Burkhead.

When NBC's Al Michaels interviewed Jordan after his gold medal match, Jordan gave a shout out to T-Magic, Husker quarterback Taylor Martinez who didn't get to hear it at the time.

"I think we had practice that day and I wish I would have saw it, I'm going back to look for it now since he did it, that's awesome," said Martinez.

Here on News 5 last week we caught up with Jordan Larson as she signed autographs in Lincoln. Her time at Nebraska on the NCAA Championship team helped her make the US Olympic team and the International volleyball star she is today.

"What a great university this is, and I know I had the support of all of the fans and I'm just proud to be representing Nebraska over there," Larson said.

Husker volleyball coach John Cook was an alternate coach for the US Olympic team. He wasn't in London bu wasn't far from a TV or his phone while Jordan was playing

"Well, I was texting with Jordan while she was in London, but it was nothing very extensive, text and Facebook just congratulations, dream big, that kind of thing, I followed the team very closely, I traveled with the team last summer," said Cook.

It's been a good start to the new sports season for Nebraska with two former athletes winning medals won in London and the current volleyball team ranked number one in the nation. Of course, Saturday we'll see if the football team can continue the momentum.

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