LONDON — Cael Sanderson spent the past seven years teaching Jake Varner how to be a world champion — and he was there Sunday when Varner joined him as an Olympic gold medalist.

With Sanderson watching, Varner defeated Valerie Andriitsev of Ukraine 1-0, 1-0 to win gold in men's 96-kilogram freestyle.

Coupled with Jordan Burroughs' victory in the 74 kilograms Friday night, it gave the American team multiple Olympic gold medalists in men's wrestling for the first time since 1996.

"Still not sure I'm in his league, but it's awesome to be coached by a guy like that," Varner said of Sanderson, a gold medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics. "I owe him a lot. It means a lot to have him with me."

Varner and Sanderson's relationship began in 2005 at Iowa State, where Sanderson coached before jumping to Penn State. The day after Varner graduated in 2010, he piled up the car and drove 15 hours to Pennsylvania to train full-time with Sanderson.

Sanderson said last week that Varner had pounded on him during training sessions leading up to the Olympics. Varner showed that good form by winning four consecutive matches.

"He was going to get me to my ultimate goal, which was to win a gold medal at the Olympics — and that's what he did," Varner said.

Sanderson said Varner was the same in the finals as in any other match.

"That's one of the reasons he's so good," Sanderson said. "He has great composure."

Throughout the Olympic tournament, the U.S. wrestlers got unfavorable draws in their unseeded brackets. They finally got lucky with Varner.

Most of the top medal contenders were on the other side of the bracket, and Varner opened with a three-period victory over Kurban Kurbanov of Uzbekistan and a decisive victory over Canadian Khetag Pliev.

George Gogshelidze of Georgia beat Varner in the first period of the semifinals, and Varner appeared to be in serious trouble when the second period stayed scoreless after two minutes.

But the ball draw that decided who would be on offense for the period tiebreaker went Varner's way. Varner took advantage of his good fortune with a takedown to force a third period in just one second.

Varner then scored on a pushout to advance to the finals, where he turned a potential deficit near the edge of the mat into the winning point.