"I couldn't even move my leg, it was so bad" - Carter Starocci makes feelings known as he reflects on injury before claiming fourth NCAA Championship

Rising freestyle wrestler and former folkstyle wrestler Carter Starocci recently talked about his knee injury and how he navigated that situation.

Starocci was undefeated during his redshirt year and clinched the Southern Scuffle title in the 174-pound category. The wrestler recently appeared in Bo Nickal’s “Nickals and Dimes” podcast, sharing his learning experience from his injury last year.

“I was thinking with the whole injury last year. I mean it was the last match of the season, the very last second of the whole entire thing and obviously in the midst.'I'm just like ‘What the heck?' I couldn't even move my leg, it was so bad and I'm just like, 'What's the plan? What am I going to do?’. So it was weird but then I'm thinking after a few days, you know what, I'm actually glad this happened,” he shared [18:19 onwards].

The four-time NCAA Division 1 champion further shared:

“Let's see how tough I actually am. Let's see me get through this. You just never know what life's going to bring you. So I was honestly, like believe it or not, I was almost glad that it happened. Because, I've always looked forward when things get hard for me. You know because I just feel like that's just reality and that brings out your true color.”

The four-time All-American began pursuing his passion for wrestling from an early age. He won state titles in both his junior and senior years in high school and went on to achieve impressive feats through the years as well.

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Carter Starocci shares his take on shaping positive narratives with media

Carter Starocci at the 2023 NCAA Division I Men's Wrestling Championship - Source: Getty

Penn State wrestling icon Carter Starocci also won a bronze medal in the U23 World Championship 2022 in Pontevedra, Spain. Last year, he shared how optimistic chronicles through the media can help, in an interview with BasicBluesNation.

“I'm actually the guy that kind of sat coach Cael [Sanderson] down within the meeting was like 'Hey, I don't think it's so bad as you think'. I think again it's the media's job is to do the media's job. I just think it's just good being in that spotlight. Because I feel if you're going to be doing great things in life, it's always going to be media around. You can't shelter from that all along,” he mentioned.

The two-time Big Ten champion further clarified the fact that the coaches initially were not in ‘favor’ of the media and how he made the effort to make them realize its potential.

Carter Starocci as a freshman achieved his first NCAA National Championship title after defeating Iowa’s Michael Kemerer, who had earlier defeated him in the Big Ten Finals. He went on to achieve three more National Championships.