Spencer Lee, shown at the U.S. Olympic Trials, earned a spot in the Paris Olympics on Saturday at the Olympic qualifier in Turkey.
Courtesy USA Wrestling
ISTANBUL, Turkey, May 11, 2024 – Exactly 21 days after winning the Olympic Trials, Spencer Lee is officially a member of the 2024 U.S. Olympic team that will compete in Paris, France in August.
The 25-year-old wrestling out of Hawkeye Wrestling Club in Iowa City, Iowa, was all business on Saturday at the 2024 World Olympic Games qualifier. Lee pitched a near-perfect game comprised of four dynamic wins on the top side of the 57 kg (125.6 pounds) men’s freestyle bracket to become a finalist and earn one of the three remaining Olympic quotas in his weight class.
Three of Lee’s four contested matches ended by technical fall. The official finish times of these three bouts? 22, 53 and 35 seconds. This includes a 10-0 thrashing of Kazakhstan’s Rakhat Kalzhan, a two-time Asian Championships medalist, in the Olympic qualification bout held in front of a raucous crowd at Istanbul’s Baakehir Gençlik ve Spor Tesisleri.
Pegged as the first Olympic qualification match of the evening session, Lee wasted no time in getting the crowd fired up. He connected on an outside fireman’s carry, dumping Kalzhan to his side, all the while locking up a lethal trapped-arm gut wrench. Four turns later and the rest, as they say, is history. Lee is on to Paris.
“It is a big deal,” Lee said. “You can’t win the Olympics if you don’t qualify and go. After I won the trials, it felt fake (being called an Olympian). Now, I am finally an Olympian now. It’s great.”
Zain Retherford, the other half of Team USA’s men’s freestyle duo, didn’t fare quite as well as Lee. That said, he does have hope to return from a tough loss to clinch an Olympic quota on Sunday.
Retherford finished with a 2-1 record on the championship side of the 65 kg bracket (143.3 pounds). He looked dominant in his two opening matches, starting with a punishing second period fall over Stefan Coman of Romania, followed by a decisive, 11-0, technical fall against Ibrahim Guzan of Yemen.
Tokyo Olympian and 2021 World bronze medalist Tulga Tumur Ochir of Mongolia got the better of Retherford in the round-of-16. Retherford held the lead on criteria late in the match, but Tumur Ochir unleashed a four-point takedown with 30 seconds remaining to steal the win, 7-2.
Tumur Ochir passed his quarterfinal and semifinal tests to earn one of the Olympic quotas at 65 kg, giving Retherford new life in the repechage. The American will have to win four matches tomorrow to finish in third place and book his trip to Paris.
The men’s freestyle repechage will begin at 3 p.m. local time (8 a.m. EST) on Sunday followed by the bronze medal matches at 4:45 p.m., and the true-bronze Olympic qualifying bouts at 6 p.m. (11 a.m., EST).
The World Olympic Games qualifier is available to watch live on Flowrestling.com. Brackets and real-time results will be available on UWW Arena.
U.S. Men’s Freestyle Results
57 kg – Spencer Lee (Iowa City, Iowa/Hawkeye WC/Titan Mercury WC), Finalist / Qualified
WIN Ben Tarik (Morocco), tech. fall, 10-0
WIN Wanhao Zou (China), 10-9
WIN Vladimir Egorov (Macedonia), tech. fall, 12-2
WIN Rakhat Kalzhan (Kazakhstan), tech. fall, 10-0
65 kg – Zain Retherford (State College, Pa./Nittany Lion WC/Titan Mercury WC), Repechage
WIN Stefan Coman (Romania), fall, 4:38
WIN Ibrahim Guzan (Yemen), tech. fall, 11-0
LOSS Tulga Tumur Ochir (Mongolia), 7-2
VS Alibeg Alibegov (Bahrain)
