Spencer Lee 2024 Paris Olympics: 'I'm ready to go'

Spencer Lee finally got to this point: the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. The three-time NCAA champion and four-time All-American from Iowa stormed through 57 KG to represent the United States.

Plagued by injuries throughout his wrestling career, Lee finally put it all together on the senior level freestyle circuit and won the trials this spring. Now, he’s a true medal threat in Paris later this week.

But this could be the best Lee’s ever felt in his career.

“I feel good,” Lee said, via The Gazette. “I’m ready to go. We know what it takes to be at that level and I’ve got coaches who have been there and know what it takes to train and prepare the best you can to be the best you can when you go out there.”

Sporting a 98-6 career record and three NCAA titles, Lee was one of the best wrestlers at the collegiate level in recent memory.

It seems like a lifetime ago that he fell short in the 2023 NCAA Championships as he gunned for a historic fourth NCAA title.

Representing the Hawkeye Wrestling Club at this stage, the Iowa roots remained for Lee. Now, he’ll do it at the highest level.

“I’m excited,” Lee said. “Absolutely. Of course, I feel like that (I’m representing Iowa, too). No matter what, this (Iowa) is part of me, part of who I am. It’s where I trained. It’s who I’m coached by. Iowa is me and it would be wrong to say I’m not representing Iowa because I am.”

If you want to talk about challenges, Lee won the 57 KG spot for the US but the weight wasn’t qualified for Paris. That’s when he had to go to the Last Chance Qualifier in Turkey.

“I was happy I was able to do it,” Lee said. “Just because I wasn’t able to do it while I was in Mexico.

“For me, it was like now I get to prove myself that I should have done more to be on the national team the year before so that I could have made the opportunity myself. So, I kind of got to be able to take that back for myself.”

Lee will take the mat Thursday in Paris in the first round of the 57 KG weight class in freestyle. It’ll be a two-day race for the Gold Medal should Lee keep winning.

The full bracket is still to-be-determined.