Iowa
Iowa wrestling icon Spencer Lee qualifies for 2024 Paris Olympics
Iowa’s Real Woods finishes in fourth at NCAA Championships
Iowa’s wrestling’s Real Woods finishes fourth at the NCAA Championships, reflects on college wrestling career and potential future caching career.
The United States will be represented by a Hawkeye wrestler in the Olympics yet again, as Iowa wrestling icon Spencer Lee has punched his ticket at the World Olympic Games Qualifier.
Lee, a three-time NCAA champion at Iowa, qualified Saturday in Istanbul, Turkey at the World Olympic Games qualifier.
Lee will be the 20th Olympian in Iowa Hawkeye wrestling history. Leslie Beers (1928) and Joe Scarpello (1948) were Olympic Team alternates in their individual cycles according to Iowa’s record book. This will be the 23rd time a Hawkeye has made the Olympic team with Chris Campbell (1980 and 1992), Randy Lewis (1980 and 1984) and Barry Davis (1984 and 1988) each making two appearances.
Lee had a four-match path to the Olympic Games. From the first match, Lee appeared locked in. Facing Morocco’s Ben Tarik first, Lee looked several gears faster than his opponent by securing a go-behind takedown. He secured four leg laces on his to a 10-0 technical fall in just 23 seconds.
In the round of 16, Lee drew the No. 1-seeded Wanhou Zou of China. Lee came out of the gate aggressive, but it cost him a two-point takedown early as Zou scored on a re-attack. After a pair of pushouts from Lee to tie it at two, Zou converted on a four-point feet-to-back takedown to take a 6-2 advantage. Lee would counter with a takedown and three leg laces to eventually hold on for a 10-9 result.
Lee’s next match was against North Macedonia’s Vladimir Egorov. Lee secured a go-behind takedown early in the first period and gut-wrenched his way to a 12-2 technical fall in just 54 seconds.
For his Olympic team spot, he faced Rakhat Kalzhan of Kazakhstan. Kalzhan is no slouch, having defeated NCAA champion Nick Suriano just last year.
Against Kalzhan, he shot for the left leg of Kalzhan and earned a two-point takedown. He gut wrenched his way to a 10-0 technical fall in 36 seconds to reach the Olympics. In total, Lee wrestled just seven minutes and 53 seconds across four matches (24 possible regulation minutes). Excluding the match against Zou, it was one minute, 23 seconds of match time.
Lee’s qualification makes it three-consecutive cycles a Hawkeye wrestler has represent the United States, all of which are at 57 kilograms. Dating back to 1980, Iowa has had at least one Olympian in 11 of the last 12 Olympic cycles, with 2012 being the lone year without a Hawkeye.
Lee follows newly appointed Oklahoma State assistant coach Thomas Gilman in 2020 and now Hawkeye Wrestling Club coach Dan Dennis in 2016. Lee will look to become the 11th Hawkeye to win an Olympic medal and could make it back-to-back Olympic medals for Iowa at 57 kilograms after Gilman’s Bronze in Tokyo.
After Saturday’s performance, there is good reason to think that he could. There appeared to be zero limitations to Lee in his matches despite knee surgeries and previous injuries in recent years. He had an extra burst to him in Istanbul that looked even more explosive than his US Olympic Trials run to earn the US Olympic Team bid. His strength in gut wrenches and leg laces made him look flat-out unbeatable in moments.
The wrestling portion of the Olympics will begin on Aug. 5 this summer and conclude on Aug. 11. The men’s freestyle division will begin on Aug. 8 at 4 a.m. CT and conclude on Aug. 9 in the early afternoon.
Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him at Emckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23
Iowa
Vote: Who Should be Iowa’s High School Athlete of the Week? (4/19/2026)
Here are the candidates for High School on SI’s Iowa high school athlete of the week for April 13-18. Read through the nominees and cast your vote.
Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. PT on Sunday, April 26. The winner will be announced in the following week’s poll. Here are this week’s nominees:
Taylor Roose, Pella boys track and field
Roose competed in three events at the Norwalk Invitational, winning all three in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash and long jump.
Daxon Kiesau, Urbandale boys track and field
Kiesau swept the throwing events at the Norwalk Invitational, taking first place in the shot put and the discus.
Alex Burger, Southeast Valley boys track and field
Competing at home, Burger dominated, earning four gold medals. He won the 400-meter hurdles and the long jump while running on the winning 4×200-meter relay and shuttle hurdle relay.
Kolby Hodnefield, Clear Lake boys track and field
Hodenfield, a defending state champion, broke the meet, venue and school record in the 200 and the 400 at the Clear Lake Invitational. He added victories as part of the 4×100 and 4×400 relays. Both relays also set meet records.
Easton Moon, North Polk boys tennis
Moon has started off his senior season on the courts unbeaten, winning all four matches while dropping just one game in 44 played.
Ava Lohrbach, Gilbert girls golf
One of the top golfers in the state, Lohrbach has had a hot start, firing a 35 in her nine-hole debut and a 72 for her 18-hole opener.
Nathan Manske, Algona boys golf
An elite quarterback and basketball player, Manske is showing his golfing skills this spring, coming out with a state-low 30 in a nine-hole event.
Ella Hein, Tipton girls track and field
Hein set school records in the 400-meter run and long jump at the Tiger/Tigerette Relays while also locking in the Blue Standard and qualifying for the Drake Relays. She won the long jump (18-6) and was second in the 400.
Maeve Bowen-Burt, Iowa City High girls track and field
The sophomore helped the Little Hawks land three Drake Relays events on the last night of qualifying, advancing in the 400 hurdles, along with the sprint medley and 4×400 relays.
About Our Athlete of the Week Voting
High School on SI voting polls are meant to be a fun, lighthearted way for fans to show support for their favorite athletes and teams. Our goal is to celebrate all of the players featured, regardless of the vote totals. Sometimes one athlete will receive a very large number of votes — even thousands — and that’s okay! The polls are open to everyone and are simply a way to build excitement and community around high school sports. Unless we specifically announce otherwise, there are no prizes or official awards for winning. The real purpose is to highlight the great performances of every athlete included in the poll.
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Iowa
Houston icon George Foreman laid to rest in Iowa, drawn by a peaceful 1988 visit
The late boxing great George Foreman lies buried in a cemetery in the northwestern corner of Iowa – a place he has no connection to outside of a lone visit to the region nearly 40 years ago.
Foreman died March 21, 2025, at the age of 76 in Houston and was buried in Logan Park Cemetery at Sioux City, Iowa, a month later, city officials confirmed. Foreman’s family returned Thursday to his burial site, holding a news conference with Sioux City Mayor Bob Scott to reveal Foreman’s burial place, marked by a large monument that bears an image of him as a teen following his Olympic gold medal boxing win.
The family explained in a statement released by Sioux City officials that he had visited the Iowa city in 1988, and often recalled the sense of peace he experienced there.
After traveling to the city on April 17 last year to bury Foreman, his family said they immediately understood the region’s appeal.
“Our father lived a life of purpose, faith and gratitude,” the family said in a statement released by Sioux City officials. “To see him laid to rest in a place that brought him peace means everything to us.”
Scott joined the family at Foreman’s monument that lies just a few miles north of the Missouri River in an upper Midwest city of nearly 87,000 people. The cemetery overlooks the scenic Loess Hills, created by windblown silt deposits that reach up to 200 feet high (about 61 meters) and line the river along the Iowa border for 200 miles (322 kilometers).
“Their story is a reminder of how one place can stay with someone for a lifetime,” Scott said.
A native Texan, Foreman rose to fame when he made the 1968 U.S. Olympic boxing team, winning gold in Mexico City. He became the heavyweight champion of the world in 1973 by defeating the great Joe Frazier, only to lose the title a year later to Muhammad Ali in the famous “Rumble in the Jungle.”
A full 20 years later in 1994, Foreman became the oldest man to win the heavyweight championship at 45, defeating Michael Moorer in an epic upset.
Foreman retired in 1997 with a 76-5 career record.
He then moved on to the next chapter in his life as a businessman, pitchman and occasional actor, becoming known to a new generation as the face of the George Foreman Grill. The simple cooking machine sold more than 100 million units and brought him more wealth than boxing.
A biographical movie based on Foreman’s life was released in 2023.
Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Iowa
GOP governor candidate Zach Lahn pitches Iowa-first platform at Dubuque town hall
DUBUQUE, Iowa (KCRG) — About 50 Iowans braved the threat of severe storms to hear from Republican candidate for governor Zach Lahn at his town hall in Dubuque Friday night.
Lahn, a farmer and businessman, said his campaign is about solving the long-term systemic issues facing Iowans.
One priority is addressing what Lahn calls a cancer crisis in Iowa, as the state has the second-highest cancer rate in the country. Solving the crisis means ensuring Iowans have access to clean, nitrate-free drinking water, working with farmers to reduce agricultural runoff.
“Iowans are just ready for something that they should be able to count on, like clean drinking water,” Lahn said. “We have ways to clean up the drinking water in Iowa that isn’t on the backs of farmers, but is working alongside with them because they’re drinking the water too, and they want to do what’s right.”
Lahn also wants to stop Iowa’s “brain drain,” as more of Iowa’s college graduates left the state for opportunities elsewhere.
“Don’t leave! Give me some time! I’m going to fight to keep you here,” Lahn said. “I was one of these kids. I thought I had to leave the state to find something better. We have to prioritize Iowa’s incentive dollars to make sure they’re going to grow Iowa businesses that are going to be here for the long haul, so our kids have places to work.”
Running a distinct campaign feels challenging this election, as Lahn is one of five GOP candidates who want to be Iowa’s next governor, facing U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, former Department of Administrative Services Director Adam Steen, state Rep. Eddie Andrews and former state Rep. Brad Sherman.
Iowa Auditor Rob Sand is the only Democrat running for the state’s top office.
Lahn said he stands out by promising Iowa will be for Iowans, pledging to ban the use of eminent domain for private gain and tax out-of-state landowners and data centers at higher rates to lower property taxes.
“It always goes back to follow the money, so when it comes to not being a weak-kneed Republican today, I believe the paramount piece of that is answering only to the citizens of Iowa, not to special interests to pad their bottom line, but what’s best for the people of Iowa,” Lahn said.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
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