"One of my favorites"- Spencer Lee mourns the death of former Olympic champion Buvaisar Saitiev

American freestyle wrestler Spencer Lee recently paid tribute to former Olympic champion from Russia, Buvaisar Saitiev. The former State Duma member and multiple World Championship gold medalist passed away at the age of 49.

For the unversed, Buvaisar Saitiev is a well-known name in freestyle wrestling. Saitiev made his debut in 1992 and won the World Championship a record six times in 1995, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2003, and 2005, respectively.

Lee posted an image of Saitiev on his Instagram story. The American wrestler also wrote in the caption,

"RIP to one of my favorite and the GOAT."

Screeengrab of Spencer Lee's Instagram story [Image Source : Spencer Lee's Instagram]

Interestingly, the Russian wrestler's younger brother, Adam Saitiev, was also a wrestler who had won an Olympic gold medal at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Buvaisar Saitiev won three consecutive Olympic gold medals in freestyle wrestling from 2000 to 2008, following which he retired from competitive wrestling.

The rising star Spencer Lee won his first Olympic medal at the Paris Olympics 2024. He lost to Rei Higuchi of Japan in the finals of 57 kg freestyle wrestling and settled for a silver medal.

---

Spencer Lee opens up on what impacted his performance in the Paris Olympics finals

Spencer Lee talks about what went wrong at the Paris Olympics [Image Source : Getty]

A former junior world champion, Spencer Lee, was not satisfied with his performance at the Paris Olympics. Lee looked back at his performance and shared what might have gone wrong in the ring/

In an interview with FloWrestling, the 26-year-old wrestler revealed that he probably let overthinking dominate him in the final bout against Rei Higuchi. In his words,

“Yeah, absolutely. I definitely was overthinking in Olympic finals. I mean I was worried about him dragging me off of like a bad shot or something [Rei Higuchi] he's really good there. I think that definitely made it, so that I didn't really do anything offensively. I think when you overthink like that, you slow down. If you're thinking in a match, you're not wrestling very well so I think a lot of that attributes to that.” [2:19 onwards]

Though he was disappointed about not winning the gold medal, Spencer Lee revealed that he was proud of bringing back an Olympic medal. In an Instagram post, he had mentioned,

“I was disappointed yesterday in not bringing home the gold for the United States. I am however proud to bring a silver medal back to the United States and the University of Iowa…To see so many fans travel for team USA and myself was an honor.”

Spencer Lee is preparing for the 2025 season. Will aim to make it big at the World Wrestling Championships this year, where he hasn't won a medal at the senior level yet.