Carson Lee has gotten closer than ever before to a world championship podium.
The teen wrestler made it to a bronze medal match at the United World Wrestling (UWW) Cadet World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia on July 2 and 3, eventually earning a fifth-place finish.
Lee qualified for worlds after a commanding performance in the 80-kilogram freestyle event at the UWW Cadet Pan-American Championship in May. At that tournament, Lee earned a silver medal after defeating entrants from Brazil, Chile and the Dominican Republic.
After arriving in Zagreb, Lee opened his tournament in the Dom Sportova arena against Greek challenger Charalampos Aftoforidis, winning 15-8. In his quarterfinal match, Lee faced Dmitrii Elkanov of Russia.
Lee’s luck failed to show up against the Russian, with the fight ending in a 10-0 technical superiority win for Elkanov. The win pushed Elkanov into the semi-final, while Lee would be put in the repechage round. At this point, Lee’s best possible outcome would be a bronze medal.
Undeterred, Lee won his repechage match up against Ulrich Manouan of Côte d’Ivoire 3-1, setting up a bronze medal bout between Lee and Hungarian Milan Korcsog for one of two bronze medals at the event, days before Lee’s 17th birthday.
The storybook ending didn’t happen for Lee. After Korcsog took an early edge in the fight, he would go on to defeat Lee 11-0.
While he may have finished out of the medals, Lee still ended with his best finish at a world championship event to date.
Lee participated in both Worlds and Pan-Ams last year, earning a bronze medal at Pan-Ams before losing to a competitor from Azerbaijan in his first match in the 76-kilogram class.
During last summer’s Canada Games in Winnipeg, Lee earned a silver medal in the men’s 76-kilogram category, and went undefeated through this year’s Saskatchewan high school wrestling season, winning the provincial title for Hapnot Collegiate in March.
Lee will still be eligible for next year’s Cadet World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, and next year’s Pan-Am tournament.
Carson’s older brother Hunter will also wrestle at Pan-Am and World Championship events this summer. Hunter will head to Fortaleza, Brazil for the junior Pan-Am championships in August, then will go to Trnava, Slovakia for Worlds in September.
