Jordan Burroughs aims this week to be alone on top of American wrestling pantheon

Penn’s wrestling locker room has just the right amount of musty odor to confirm that some hard work is accomplished close by. Around the corner in the wrestling room, it’s not just Quakers toiling. Jordan Burroughs, pride of Sicklerville, Olympic wrestling hero, works out of this place.

No name on his locker, but his stuff is in there. Burroughs, now 34, also works out regularly at Drexel down the street, now that he is training with the Pennsylvania Regional Training Center.

This is historic work Burroughs is doing.

By Friday, Burroughs will know if he is the most decorated American freestyle wrestler of all time. The top seed in the 79-kilogram (174-pound) division of the Senior World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, Burroughs will start wrestling early Thursday morning Philadelphia time, trying to become the first American wrestler to win seven world or Olympic gold medals.

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Right now, Burroughs is tied with a couple of other legends, John Smith and Adeline Gray, with six gold medals. For him, the six have been achieved with the 2012 Olympic gold and five world titles.

“This is probably the most special 10-day stretch in my career,” Burroughs said last year in a telephone interview from Oslo, Norway, a couple of hours after he won the world title to tie that mark, noting how that stretch started with him being present for the early arrival of his fourth child.

“Jordan is in a great place spiritually, mentally, and physically,’’ texted former Penn star and 2000 Olympic gold medalist Brandon Slay, the head coach of PRTC who is with Burroughs in Belgrade. “He understands there is a big opportunity in front of him, yet he is staying focused on the small things like nutrition, good rest, keeping his feet moving, stinging opponents with his hands, and attacking to score points.”

The small things are legendary. Current Penn wrestling star Doug Zapf came into the Quakers’ wrestling room Wednesday morning. Working on blast doubles with Jordan Burroughs, a two-time NCAA champion at Nebraska, isn’t a bad way to learn such a move.

“I would say daily,” Zapf said of how often current Quakers are working out with Burroughs. “I wrestle with him a little bit. He’s a little bit bigger than me, so it’s hard to go 100 percent for each of us. But it’s really good to see the way he moves, and his hands and feet. It’s something I’ve never felt before.”

That blast double … a double-leg takedown, famous in the sport.

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“The thing with him, he’s so comfortable with so many positions,” Zapf said. “For me, I’m known for my hand fighting. And he’s also just as good if not better than me at hand fighting. But the thing is, he’ll set up his blast double up from his hand fight, give a little space, then I’m a little higher than him, and he’ll blast double me, run through me. His head’s right into my chest.”

Yes, Zapf said he plans to be up at 4:30 a.m. Thursday to watch on the FloWrestling website as Burroughs begins his quest to blast double to the top of the American wrestling hierarchy, all-time.

“When he commits to doing the small things with excellence,” Slay said in his text from Belgrade, “he knows the big things will come to fruition.”