"You get tougher throughout a college season"- Spencer Lee weighs in on going head to head against Luke Lilledahl at Final X

Olympic medalist wrestler Spencer Lee shared his thoughts about the Final X tournament with Luke Lilledahl. Lee will be competing against Lilledahl in the best-of-three challenge for a berth on the American team for the World Wrestling Championships.

In a conversation with FloWrestling, the 26-year-old wrestler opened up about his admiration for the young wrestler. The Olympic silver medalist stated,

"He's very young, I mean he's a true freshman this year at Penn State you know. He [Lilledahl] is a Big Ten champ, and I said out up at the interview, for the press conference. I said that I was a very different wrestler from my senior year of high school, after my freshman year of college. So I'm assuming the same could be said about him. You know, you get tougher throughout a college season.

For the unversed, Luke Lilledahl is a 19-year-old freestyle wrestler who had recently won the US National Championships in the 57 kg freestyle category. The wrestler had also won a bronze medal in the 125 lbs category at the NCAA Wrestling Championships this year.

Spencer Lee had previously won gold medals at the U17 World Championships and the U20 World Championships, respectively. He will be aiming to qualify for the Senior World Wrestling Championships and earn his first gold medal at the event being held in Zagreb, Croatia, this year.

Spencer Lee reflects on what impacted his final Olympic performance

Spencer Lee in action at the Paris Olympics finals [Image Source : Getty]

After being unable to make it to the Tokyo Olympics due to recurring injuries, Spencer Lee made it count at the quadrennial event in Paris by cruising to the finals of the men's 57kg freestyle wrestling. The 26-year-old wrestler recounted what may have gone wrong in the finals against Rei Higuchi of Japan.

In his conversation with FloWrestling, Lee mentioned

“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]

Despite giving a tough fight to Higuchi, Spencer Lee lost out by 2-4 in the finals and had to settle for a silver medal.

About the author

Animesh Pandey is a seasoned content writer at Sportskeeda with over eight years of experience, having previously worked as an intern for Follow Your Sport before joining SK as a columnist in 2017. A graduate with a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing, he also worked at TFI Media Private Limited and contributed as an intern for the movie website Nettv4u.

He has extensively covered events from World Championships to the Olympics, providing insights and analyses that resonate with his audience. His belief in mastering the basics and delivering accurate, relevant, and ethical information through thorough research is reflected in his work.

He was notably invited to the National Sports and Adventure Awards 2018 at Rashtrapati Bhavan after winning a MyGov quiz on Indian Sports, where he engaged with celebrated athletes such as Rahi Sarnobat, Hima Das, Jinson Johnson, Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, and Subedar Neeraj Chopra, who also happens to be his favorite Olympian.

Despite being a field hockey enthusiast, Animesh's most cherished Olympic moments include Wayde Van Niekerk's unexpected world record in the 400 meters at Rio and Chopra's historic gold medal in Tokyo.

When not immersed in writing or watching the Olympics, Animesh indulges in his love for movies, embracing quality cinema regardless of the language.

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Edited by Tushhita Barua