Only one Canadian male wrestler has made the cut for the upcoming Youth Olympics in Argentina – Flin Flon’s own Carson Lee.
Lee was announced as one of Canada’s two representatives on the wrestling mat for the event. Lee and fellow wrestler Anika White will compete from Oct. 12 to 14 in Buenos Aires, the same city where Lee won his first United World Wrestling (UWW) Cadet Pan-American Championship medal in 2017.
Lee was named to the team on Aug. 23, based on his performance at this year’s UWW Cadet Pan-Ams event in Guatemala. Lee earned a silver medal there, then went on to finish fifth in the UWW Cadet World Championships in Croatia.
Lee has known he was under consideration for the event for months, first discussing the prospect publicly in April. He will take part in the freestyle 80-kilogram class.
Past Canadian representatives at the Youth Olympics in multiple sports have gone on to compete in the senior Olympics, including diver Philippe Gagne, who won a silver and a bronze medal at the 2014 Youth Olympics before joining Team Canada for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. One Canadian wrestler, Dorothy Yeats, won a gold medal in her weight class in the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore before participating in the 2016 Olympics.
Canada won seven medals at the 2014 Youth Olympics, but did not take home any gold medals.
