“It's a disservice to being an Olympic champ”- Spencer Lee reacts to Russian wrestlers Zaur Uguev and more completely opting out of Paris Olympics

Spencer Lee, the American Freestyle wrestler, reacted to Russian wrestlers opting out of the 2024 Paris Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) extended an invitation to the Russian Wrestling Federation for their wrestlers to compete under the Individual Neutral Athletes banner, owing to the nation invading Ukraine in 2022.

However, since the list of Russian wrestlers eligible for the Paris Olympics did not include many prominent leaders from their national team, the federation and the athletes decided to opt out of the Games.

With this, the Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Zaur Uguev won’t be defending his title in the men’s 57kg at the quadrennial Games. In an interview with FloWrestling, Lee, who belonged to the same wrestling category as Uguev, shared his discontent about the Russian wrestlers not being a part of the Games, stating:

“I was pretty upset, to be honest. It's not like I'm saying at all, if I win, then people will take it away from me. I don't really care about that. For me, it's that you take away an opponent that has been the man of my weight class for years.”

He emphasized how he wanted to wrestler with Zaur Uguev more than anyone, stating:

“That's the one guy [Zaur Uguev] I wanna wrestle more than anyone, and then you just take him out of the bracket, I mean, I definitely can say that if I win the Olympics, I will wrestle him before 2024 is out if they wanna wrestle me. And I will wrestle him whenever he wants it, whatever way he wants.”

Spencer Lee added:

“He's right there, he's been the guy, so he might not been the favorite this year, but taking a guy out of the bracket like that is, to me, it's a disservice to being an Olympic champ or striving for that.”

Spencer Lee aims for first Olympic gold medal in Paris

Spencer Lee won the Best-of-Three Championship final at the U.S. Olympic Wrestling Trials after defeating the Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Thomas Gillman by 2-0.

With this, he needed to secure a quota spot for himself and the USA in the 57kg weight class for the Paris Olympics. The USA had not earned a quota in that category, and the World tournament was the final chance for wrestlers to qualify.

At the 2024 World Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament, the three-time NCAA champion Lee accomplished it by winning all his four matches, including Round of 32, Round of 16, quarters, and semis, to obtain a quota for the United States in the men’s 57kg. With this, Spencer Lee now aims to win the gold medal in the 2024 Summer Olympics, which will also be his first appearance.