#WrestleCoralville

China's Women's Wrestling World Cup team announced

Sunday, November 20, 2022 - 14:16 By Gary Abbott

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CORALVILLE, Iowa (November 20) --- China’s lineup for the Women’s Wrestling World Cup has been released.

The Freestyle and Women’s Wrestling World Cup will be held at Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa, Dec. 10-11. It is the first time that freestyle and women’s wrestling will be held together side-by-side at the World Cup. 

The World Cup is the annual international dual meet championships, conducted by United World Wrestling. The top five teams in freestyle and the top five teams in women’s wrestling from the 2022 Senior World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia in September have confirmed their participation. There is also an All-World Team in each discipline, featuring the top available athlete from the World Championships in each weight class that were not from a nation which qualified for the World Cup.

The Chinese women’s wrestling World Cup team will feature many senior and age-group world medalists. 

There are five past senior world medalists, led by 2020 Olympic silver medalist Qianyu PANG (55kg), who also won world bronze medals in 2018 and 2019. A two-time world medalist is Feng ZHOU (68kg), who was a world silver medalist in 2015 and a world bronze medalist in 2018. Zhou was also a 2012 U20 world champion.

The other senior world medalists on the roster are 2022 world silver medalist Jia LONG (65kg), 2022 world bronze medalist Xiaojuan LUO (62kg) and 2017 world bronze medalist Yue HAN (68kg). Long was a 2020 Olympian, while Han won a 2016 U20 world silver medal.

Additional age-group World medalists are Zhang QI (59kg), who won silver medals at the 2017 U23 worlds and the 2018 U20 worlds, plus Jiang ZHU (50kg), a 2017 U23 world bronze medalist. In addition, 2019 World Military Games Juan WANG (76kg) will also wrestle.

China, which placed third at the 2022 World Championships in women’s wrestling, will be joined in the World Cup by World champion Japan, second place United States, fourth place Mongolia and fifth place Ukraine, in addition to the All-World Team. 

The rosters of the World Cup teams for the other nations will be announced over the next week by USA Wrestling.

Ticket packages for the 2022 Men’s and Women’s Wrestling World Cup are currently on sale. The seating capacity for Xtream Arena for the World Cup will be approximately 5,300. Ticket packages include a Gold package for $275, Silver package for $200 and All-Session tickets for $90.

A special Presentation of Teams and Team USA Meet & Greet will also be held on Friday, December 9 at 6:45 p.m. It is free and open to the public. 

Men’s and Women’s Freestyle World Cup tickets -> https://worldcupiowacity.com/tickets/

China Women’s Wrestling World Cup team
50 kg – Meng FAN 
50 kg - Jiang ZHU
53 kg – Li DENG
55 kg – Qianyu PANG
57 kg – Yongxin FENG
59 kg – Zhang QU
62 kg – Xinyuan SUN
62 kg – Xiaojuan LUO
65 kg – Jia LONG
68 kg – Feng ZHOU
68 kg – Yue Han
72 kg – Qiandegenchagan
76 kg – Juan Wang

#WrestleIstanbul

Spencer Lee one step closer to Olympic dream

Friday, May 3, 2024 - 12:37 By Vinay Siwach

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ISTANBUL, Turkiye (May 3) -- The world will finally see the return of Spencer LEE (USA) on a big stage. The one-time phenom is coming to Istanbul in a bid to qualify the United States for the Paris Olympics at 57kg.

Lee is a former U17 and U20 world champion and was primed to be the next superstar from the U.S. However, he could never get going at the international stage and only participated in an international tournament in 2024, eight years after his U20 world title. At the Pan-Am Championships this year, Lee won the gold medal at 57kg.

Despite his three NCAA titles and a college record a few can dream of, Lee hasn't returned to the international scene partly due to injuries and partly due to his college commitments. After two surgeries, battles with health, a heartbreaking loss in NCAAs, a long return and wins over former Iowa teammate Thomas GILMAN (USA) at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, Lee is finally here.

"I’ve had such a tough time trying to stay healthy and trying to compete to the best of my ability,” Lee said after winning the trials. "I’m still not healthy but I’m healthy enough to wrestle hard against really, really good opponent.”

That's what he will have to do in Istanbul. In the 57kg bracket, Lee will be unseeded and can be drawn against any of the big names in the first round. Tokyo Olympian Georgi VANGELOV (BUL), former U23 world champion AMAN (IND), world silver medalist Alireza SARLAK (IRI) and local star Muhammet KARAVUS (TUR) are a few names he will have to keep an eye on.

The field also includes world bronze medalists Zanabazar ZANDANBUD (MGL) and Horst LEHR (GER) along with former European champion Vladimir EGOROV (MGL), Asian Games silver medalist Chong Song HAN (PRK) and Andrii YATSENKO (UKR).

If his opponents need a form check, Lee won four bouts at the trials, outscoring his opponents 35-11 with wins over Tokyo bronze medalist Gilman and Zane RICHARDS (USA). And his attacks are solid as ever as Gilman found out in the best-of-three series.

Three wrestlers in each Olympic weight class will receive Paris 2024 quotas in Istanbul, two being the winners of the semifinals and the third will be decided with a playoff between the two bronze medal winners. Lee would hope to secure it as the winner of the semifinal and avoid going, if fortunate, through repechage.

Apart from qualifying the U.S. in Istanbul, there is extra motivation for Lee to win in Istanbul. Lee's mother, Carry, is from France where she met Lee's father, Larry, both judokas. And, he can become the first Olympic champion for the U.S. in the lowest weight class since 2008.

Lee is aware that the road to Paris is still 'long and hard'. But the 25-year-old is ready.

"I have work to do."