Spencer Lee: ‘I didn’t deserve to win’ Olympic gold medal match

PARIS — In his first Olympics, former University of Iowa wrestling star Spencer Lee came up short, falling in the 57 kg (125.5 pounds) gold medal match.

A sliver medal was no consolation.

“I don't think there will ever be perspective where I think it’s (a silver medal) good,” he said after losing to Japan’s Rei Higuchi, 4-2. “So, 20 years from now, you try to name an Olympic silver medalist, and I bet you can’t. It’s because no one cares.”

Shortly after the silver medal was placed around his neck, Lee was asked what went through at that moment.

“First thing I thought was to take it off, to be honest with you,” said the 25-year-old who was a three-time NCAA champion at Iowa. “I don't even have it anymore. I gave it to my sister. I don't even know where it is.”

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In the match, after a first couple of minutes in which neither wrestler was doing much, the referee put Lee on the clock, forcing him to take the initiative to score within 30 seconds. Lee responded by getting a step-out for a point to take the lead, and he scored on another step-out a short time later to take a 2-0 lead into the three-minute break.

With about 2:30 remaining in the match, Higuchi scored two on a takedown to give him the lead on the basis that the wrestler scoring last wins. A failed desperation lateral drop by Lee in the dying moments made him vulnerable to one last takedown, leading to a 4-2 final score.

In summing up the match, Lee said he “didn’t put a lot of effort” into the match.

“So, I didn’t deserve to win today, and that’s OK,” he said, adding that he would have taken an entirely different approach into it if he could do it over again.

“Honestly, just do a lot more action, create action, force him to wrestle me. You know, yeah, he scored one scramble, but you know, I think action favors me and I let him hang on my hand and kind of stand there, and he won one scramble, and that was it.”

Team USA’s Bill Zadick, who is National Freestyle Development Coach with USA Wrestling, said he was not surprised at all with Lee taking the loss hard.

“Well, Spencer holds himself to a pretty high standard,” said Zadick, another former Iowa Hawkeye great, who won a gold medal at the 2006 world championships. “You know, he is what we all think he is. He’s an incredible, incredible athlete, incredible competitor, and he wants to do things the right way and he wants to do great things. And he certainly has put in a lot of effort. He’s done a really great job and it was a hard path for him, after the trials, and then to qualify in the weight, and even a hard path here, an unseeded guy coming in. I mean it’s a deep field … but I certainly believe in Spencer.”

Lee, who made his Olympic debut in Paris, was non-committal about trying again at a home Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.

“You know, we’ll see man,” he said. “I’m still trying to figure out if I want to keep wrestling or if I want to figure something (else) out for my life. A lot of time and effort (was) put into getting back into a healthy enough state to wrestle, and then I go and I fail. So, we'll figure it out from here.”

He clearly has not put much time into thinking about what he would do if it is not wrestling.

“I’d seclude myself somewhere and figure out something else, I guess. I don't know,” Lee said. “I’m competitive. I want to be the best at what I do. So, if I did something, I’d try to be the best at it.”