On Thursday, Spencer Lee's march through the field at 57 KG led him to the gold medal match at the 2024 Olympics. On Friday, Lee's bid to claim Olympic gold came up short as he fell to Japan's Rei Higuchi, 4-2.
The bout was hotly anticipated, as both men had blitzed through most of their challengers en route to meeting for the gold medal. While both men brought high-powered offensive attacks and the ability to score in a multitude of ways into the match, they also made it this far because they possess very stout defensive skills as well. Those world-class defensive abilities were on display for much of the match, with Lee and Higuchi stymieing attacks from the other with heavy hips and strong hand fighting.
After a few scoreless minutes to open the match, Lee was warned for passivity and put on the activity clock. Higuchi had been the more active of the two wrestlers to that point, with Lee ably blocking off his attacks and using his strength and heavy hips to keep Higuchi at bay. Lee picked up his own attacks on the clock and managed to maneuver Higuchi near the edge of the mat and score on a step-out point and take a 1-0 lead.
A few moments later (and shortly before the mid-match break period), Lee was again able to move Higuchi near the edge of the mat and shove him off the mat for another step-out point. That gave him a narrow 2-0 lead heading into the break, with three minutes to go in the match.
After failing to get through Lee's defense with single leg attacks, Higuchi switched to a double leg attack and transitioned into a body lock. Lee countered and both men went into a scramble down to the mat. Lee has often been able to come out on top and score points in those situations, but this time Higuchi finished on top and scored the takedown for two points. The match was tied 2-2, but the tiebreaking criteria favored Higuchi as he had a two-point scoring move to Lee's two one-point scoring moves.
Trailing on criteria, Lee picked up the intensity of his attacks, but was unable to break through Higuchi's defense. He was able to push Higuchi near the edge of the mat on a few occasions and get him off the mat, but he wasn't able to receive a step-out point due to Higuchi being grounded on the mat while being pushed out.
With seconds remaining, Lee tried for a desperation throw that Higuchi was able to counter into a takedown of his own as time expired. That made the final score 4-2 and made Higuchi the gold medalist at 57 KG.
Lee's silver medal is the first wrestling medal won by a U.S. man in these Olympic Games (though Aaron Brooks added a bronze medal at 86 KG moments later), as well as Lee's first Olympic medal. He becomes the first Iowa wrestler since Barry Davis in 1984 to win a silver medal at the Olympics. Tom Brands remains the last Iowa wrestler to win a gold medal at the Olympics, in 1996.
The silver medal is no doubt bittersweet for Lee. It's not the gold medal that he wanted, especially in front of an extended number of friends and family in his mother's home country of France. But the silver medal still caps off what was an overall successful two days of Olympic competition for Lee and a year in which he established himself as a significant freestyle threat at the senior level.
