It goes without saying that Spencer Lee’s athletic legacy is secured regardless if he ever steps foot on a mat again. Thankfully for American wrestling fans, Spencer intends to step back on a in a week’s time at the 2025 Senior World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia. 

Shockingly, this is Lee’s first time on the USA’s freestyle world team. Lee is anything but inexperienced in the international style of wrestling, however, having made four age-level world teams as a teenager. 

And while a trip to the podium in Zagreb will technically be the first senior world medal for Lee, the Olympic silver medal Spencer secured in Paris has proven that Lee is currently among the top contenders in the wrestling world.  

So how did it come to be that an active and accomplished wrestler such as Spencer Lee will be wrestling in his first World Championship a month before his 27th birthday? 

Spencer’s High School History

Lee established his phenom bona fides early in his wrestling career. Already a buzzed about within the wrestling community at a middle schooler, Lee became even more nationally known when he made his first U17 world team the summer before his freshman year of high school in 2013. 

Lee made the next U17 world team and won his first age-level gold in 2014. In 2015 Lee lost to Daton Fix in the U17 team trial finals. Fix would win a bronze medal that year, while Spencer simply entered the U20 world team trials, made that team, then won a gold medal at the 2015 U20 World Championships. 

Lee then won another gold at the 2016 U20 World Championships, all before his senior year of high school. 

UWW

• 2013: 7th at U17 50kg
• 2014: 1st at U17 50kg
• 2015: 1st at U20 50kg 
• 2016: 1st at U20 50kg

Speaking of high school, Lee also had one of the most legendary high school careers, winning three Pennsylvania AAA state titles at Franklin Regional. Lee amassed a 144-1 career record with 59 pins.

That lone loss famously came to future Hawkeye teammate Austin DeSanto in the PIAA state finals.

PIAA

• 2014: 1st at 113lbs
• 2015: 1st at 120lbs
• 2016: 1st at 120lbs
• 2017: 2nd at 126lbs

Spencer's Collegiate Career

That DeSanto loss did little to dampen the Spencer Lee hype as he began his collegiate career at the University of Iowa. But that loss also occurred while Lee was injured (not that you will ever hear Spencer use an injury as an excuse), and Lee’s time on the mat would be limited because of injury, which precluded Lee from wrestling freestyle that summer. 

Spencer hit the ground running once he got to Iowa City, though, competing as a true freshman and winning his first NCAA title in March of 2018. 

Lee would follow that championship up with another title in 2019 (and a Sullivan Award). Quite annoyingly, stupid Covid canceled the 2020 NCAA Championships after Lee had already earned the #1 seed in his weight class. 

In 2021, Lee was back to his winning ways with an undefeated season and another NCAA title. Lee won a Hodge Trophy after both the 2020 and 2021 seasons, which apparently was accomplished after tearing an ACL in the 2019 finals and another ACL just before the 2021 NCAA Tournament. 

Lee took a medical redshirt in 2022 and then returned for one final season in Iowa City that resulted in a 6th-place finish at NCAAs. 

NCAAs

• 2018: 1st at 125lbs
• 2019: 1st at 125lbs
• 2020: #1 seed at 125lbs
• 2021: 1st at 125lbs
• 2022: medical redshirt
• 2023: 6th at 125lbs

Those aforementioned injuries undoubtedly put a damper on Lee's freestyle match count. The only significant freestyle tournament Lee entered while enrolled at Iowa was 2019’s Senior Nationals, where he won the 57kg bracket. 

Spencer's Senior Freestyle Career

It wasn’t until the 2023 US Open that Lee again competed in freestyle. Unfortunately, injuries would force him to withdraw from the tourney after the quarterfinals. 

Lee was healthy and back to his winning ways in the fall of that year, winning the 2023 Bill Farrell and the 2023 Senior Nationals. Subsequently, Lee secured a Pan-Am gold medal in 2024 before winning the 2024 Olympic Team Trials. Lee then punched his ticket to Paris by winning all his matches at the 2024 Olympic Games Qualifying event at 57kg. 

Despite coming home one match shy of his ultimate goal, Spencer's silver medal was also achieved without any more significant injuries, which allowed Lee to compete again relatively soon. In 2025, Lee won two tournaments overseas, the Henri Deglane and the Zagreb Open. 

UWW/USAW

• 2019: Senior Nationals 1st 57kg
• 2023: Bill Farrell 1st 57kg
• 2023: Senior Nationals 1st 57kg
• 2024: Pan-Am 1st 57kg
• 2024: Olympic Team Trials 1st 57kg
• 2024: OG Qualifier 57kg
• 2024: Olympics 2nd 57kg
• 2025: Henri Deglane 1st 57kg
• 2025: Zagreb Open 1st 57kg
• 2025: Final X 1st

Relevant Recent Results

Since getting back on the senior level circuit, Spencer has notched a substantial amount of quality international wins, as evidenced by the list below. 

• #10 Bazarganov, AZE
• #8 Bravo-Young, MEX
• Gvinjilia, GEO
• #3 Abdullaev, UZB
• Zou, CHN 2X
• Almaz Uulu, KGZ
• Abdullaev, UZB
• #9 Kalzhan, KAZ
• Egorov, MKD

That's four of the top 10 wrestlers expected to be in the same bracket as Lee in Zagreb. Lee's last two freestyle losses, to Rei Higuchi in the Olympic finals and to Masa Ono in the FloWrestling Night in America card, both from Japan, will not be in the field in Croatia. 

That is not to say that anyone should expect Lee's path to gold will be a leisurely stroll to the top of the podium. Aman Sehrawat of India and Chonsong Han of North Korea are two tough opponents that Lee has never laid hands on yet. Aman is a particularly worrisome challenger. 

Will Lee be able to overcome those obstacles and add to his already overstuffed trophy case of medals? We'll all find out in a week!