In quite an unimpressive campaign for US wrestling at the Paris Olympics, Spencer Lee emerged as the shining light, winning the silver medal in the 57 kg category. The wrestler entered the tournament undefeated with a record of 27-0. He then managed to beat his first three opponents, taking the number to 30-0, before finally losing to the Japanese wrestler Rei Higuchi with a score of 4-2.

While an Olympic silver is considered a huge achievement, it did not satisfy Spencer at all, who was absolutely devastated to lose the opportunity to win the gold medal. “Twenty years from now, try and name Olympic silver medalists. I bet you can’t. It’s because no one cares,” he said in a press conference. Spencer Lee also said that he didn’t really care about his silver and handed it to his sister. It was quite evident that the wrestler was unhappy. This is exactly why he was hunting for redemption at the upcoming Kunayev International Tournament, where his participation was confirmed. But much to fans’ dismay, it seems like this may not be happening anymore.

Spencer Lee withdraws from recent competition

On December 11th, USA Wrestling announced that four freestyle athletes will be traveling to Kazakhstan for the Kunayev D.A. International on December 20-22, led by Spencer Lee. The event was being hyped up as the return of Lee after his last defeat and outburst at the Paris Olympics. This piqued a lot of fans’ interest, as the Iowa alumni looked like he was going to the place with a point to prove.

Unfortunately, it was not meant to be, as Spencer is no longer going to compete at the Kunayev D.A. This was reported by Justin Basch, host of the wrestling podcast BASCHAMANIA, who said, “Spencer Lee will no longer be competing at Kunayev D.A. this weekend. No reason as to why was given.” The news came as a surprise to a lot of fans.

This post was re-uploaded on the wrestling community of Reddit by user Ok-Procedure-8027, who opened the comments with the question, “What do you think the reason is?” The question attracted numerous amounts of speculation about the wrestler, with most people settling on the probability that he has been ruled out because of an injury. This is because Spencer Lee has a record of being very injury-prone throughout his career and has missed numerous important matches because of them.

Fans react to Spencer Lee’s withdrawal from the Kazakhstan event with frustration

Most members of the wrestling community were left extremely unhappy and perplexed by the announcement that Spencer Lee was withdrawing from the event. All of them wondered about the reason, with most settling on injury. “Maybe he’s hurt again?“ said one fan. This was obviously the first instinct of every fan when they heard the news. Spencer has unfortunately been a victim of numerous injuries throughout his career. The first one goes back to his high school when he tore his ACL.

This could have had long-term effects to the point that it could have threatened his career. But he managed to stage a comeback from there and ended up having a successful high school career. However, nobody really knows how much of the damage still lives on his knees. “Probably because his knees are made of Kleenex,” said one fan, who believed that it was probably the same body part that was bothering him. Spencer Lee’s injuries didn’t end in high school, as he had to opt out of the Tokyo Olympics trials owing to another injury.

It was heartbreaking to see this, as the wrestler had proven himself to be a worthy contender for the medal. However, unfortunately, destiny had other plans. Thus, it could be very well possible that it has other plans for the wrestler this time too, with another injury in the picture. Another fan also speculated that the whole situation had something to do with his leg, as they blamed his withdrawal on “the lack of interior crucial ligaments.” The two major injuries in his career are what made his comeback at the Paris Olympics so special.

Many had made the mistake of counting Spencer Lee out of the trials. However, with his incredible skills and signature arrogance, the wrestler made it into the competition, eventually getting his hands on the silver medal. This is why many fans refused to believe that he would have an injury right after that. Spencer had displayed incredible skills at the competition and was probably still at the top of his game. “Homeboy just took silver at the Olympics. His knees are fine (relatively speaking),” said one fan.

But if the injury hadn’t ruled Spencer Lee out, what was his reason for the absence from the tournament? According to some fans, inactivity after Paris might have caused him to gain weight. The wrestler must have felt that the competition wasn’t really worth the effort of going through a grueling weight cut only months after the Paris Olympics.

This is the reason why he had opted out. “The level of competition at this tournament, per FRL, wasn’t super high. I bet that he was weighing a little more than he would have liked, saw that the quality of opponents at this tournament wasn’t great, and decided that a hard weight cut wasn’t worth it.” Thus, most of these comments were speculations, as no concrete news has come out about the reason for Spencer Lee’s absence. Hopefully, he is doing well and hasn’t suffered any serious injury.