Greco-Roman World Team Member Jordan Holm – Short Time Ep. 70

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

A two-time high school state champion while growing up in Minnesota, Jordan Holm was an up-and-coming talent not just on the college mats, but in Greco-Roman. While he's put a lot of the past behind him to make two straight U.S. World Teams in Greco-Roman, Holm still has to answer questions about his past and the battles he's been enduring to try to clear his name from a 2003 conviction that put him in prison.

While Holm still fights the fight for vindication, he won his third U.S. Open championship back in April and earlier this month in Daytona Beach, beat Zac Nielsen in two straight matches to earn the right to represent the United States at the 2014 World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

A few of the questions Jordan Holm answers in Episode 70 of the Short Time Wrestling Podcast are:

You've started taking an active role in managing some things at the Minnesota Training Center. Explain what you're trying to do with the Minnesota Training Center and the innovations you're bringing to the club.
You won your second-straight spot on the U.S. World Team beating another member of the Minnesota Storm, Zac Neilsen, in the finals in Daytona. What are the difficulties or advantages in wrestling someone who you train with regularly?
Let's go back in time, and this is something that will always follow you. In 2003, you were convicted of a crime you to this day, insist you did not commit. This prompted your family to create freejordan.org, where letters and information was distributed to the public about your plight. The end result was you spent eight years in prison. This is obviously a situation you'll have to still answer questions about. How are you handling it all?
How much did the loss in 2012 to Chas Betts in the best-of-three Olympic Trials finals sting and how much did that factor in to you continuing your wrestling career through the 2016 Olympic Cycle?
You actually left the University of Northern Iowa to play a semester of Division III football with your brother, who was attending Division III Bethel at the time. Explain that scenario and why you decided to head to Bethel to play another sport, even just for a short time.

And then there's our listener questions:

An unnamed coach in Shoreview, Minnesota with “pinnaclewrestling” in their email address asks why is your hair so crazy and is there a chance you might shave it before Worlds?
Griffin Parriott down in New Prague, Minnesota asks: What's the biggest diference when wrestling American opponents compared to wrestling foreign opponents. When do you plan on being done competing and will you coach once done?
Mike Tschida in South Haven, Minnesota … that's South Haven, with a population of 187 … he asks with the great history of the Storm program, which wrestler from the past would you choose to emulate with respect to their wrestling style?
Andy Furhman, our man who does a lot of live blogs and broadcasting for TheOpenMat around the country asks if there are any plans to write a book about your experiences.