All that separates Hunter Lee from world championship wrestling glory are worthy opponents – and, oh yeah, almost 9,000 km in flights and driving.
“We’re driving to Saskatoon, then we’re flying to Toronto, then Amsterdam, then Georgia,” says the Flin Flon teen.
When he says Georgia, Lee doesn’t mean the US state, but rather the former Soviet country, thousands of kilometres away from home. It’s in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi that Lee will compete in the World Wrestling Championships, held from Sept. 13 to 18.
“Last year, I was a backup. This year, I’m a starter,” said Lee, who will wrestle in the 85-kg weight class.
Lee punched his ticket to the championship by earning a bronze medal at the United World Wrestling Pan-American Championship, held earlier this year in Peru.
The tournament in Georgia will cap off a whirlwind year for Lee, who has been to four countries and three continents in 2016.
“I’ve basically been practicing and training all summer,” says Lee. “I was in Flin Flon for like a week, and the rest of the time, I was in Peru, I was in Japan, I was in Saskatoon for the rest of the time and I was in Colorado.”
In Colorado, Lee took part in a training camp with world-class wrestlers from both Canada and the US.
“There’s a lot of good wrestlers there,” he says. “I wrestled a guy I’m going to see at Worlds from the US.
“The Americans and the Russians, they’re the two... they usually come first and second in all of the weight classes.”
Hunter may not be the only Lee on the world stage next year. His younger brother Carson intends to follow his brother’s footsteps to next year’s Worlds, being held in Athens, Greece.
“I plan to make the World team next year,” says Carson. “I plan to stay at the same weight class and beat the guy who beat me this year, in the semi-finals. I’m going to try to beat him at trials this year.
“I think I can beat him, because I’ve recorded his matches. I know what to look for.”
Hunter begins the long trip to Georgia on Saturday.
