For nearly a quarter-century, amateur boxing has been an Olympic sore spot or the embarrassing relative you prefer not showing up at your summer party. Corruption, financial woes, and strange outcomes have all contribute to the negativity toward the sport.
For fans, the memories of Oscar De La Hoya’s run through Barcelona or the amazing 1976 U.S. team dominating the competition in Montreal are distant ones. Instead, they remember Jong-il Byun 67-minute sit-in ring protest of corrupt judging that caused a ringside riot in Seoul. Or they remember the jaw-dropping “by decision” losses that kept the gold away from Roy Jones Jr. and Floyd Mayweather Jr. . U.S. fighters now assume that the international system has an unspoken bias against them.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) became frustrated with boxing after the Athens Games, and decided to freeze its share until the hierarchy cleaned up amateur boxing. And changes did come, as Taiwan’s Ching-Kuo Wu took over as the International Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) leader from Anwar Chowdhry, who ran the sport for 20 years.
Wu’s intention was to turn amateur boxing into a dynamic, respectable competition. In the last 18 months, he has hired an independent auditor to revamp the computer scoring system and establish a process to assign referees and judges to bouts.
The United States leads all nations in Olympic boxing medals, but has only won one gold medal in the last two Summer Games. Changes had to be made at the top of USA Boxing, and Jim Millman was named CEO of the organization last summer. A longtime sports marketing executive, Millman fixed USA Boxing’s financial woes and restructured its approach to Olympic competition.
Millman renewed ties with De La Hoya by inviting the Golden Boy to assist with establishing the training philosophy for the team. De La Hoya will also use his connections to get USA Boxing more attention in upcoming years.
Millman then brought back head coach Dan Campbell, who revived the residency program after a 24-year absence. The program consists of living year-round at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado without any family members present. This caused friction with several boxers on the squad. But Campbell contends the residency program fosters teamwork and improves their adaptation to international competition, which has been a struggle for U.S. boxers.
Recently, USA Boxing reinstated Luis Yanez (light flyweight) to the squad after being thrown off for missing workouts. He was absent for most of the team’s training sessions in June, and later Yanez admitted his mistakes to Campbell, who urged USA Boxing to reinstate him. The 19 year old won a gold medal at the Pan-Am Games last year, but Yanez succumbed to the pressure of the residency training program.
The U.S. team is expecting to rebound with success in Beijing, as two-time Olympian Rau’shee Warren and Demetrius Andrade both won titles at last year’s World Championships. Right now, Russia is the juggernaut of amateur boxing with Thailand, United States, and Cuba fighting for second place.
Stung by recent defections, Cuba is heading to Beijing with their least experienced squad in decades. At the last Olympics, five Cubans were gold medal winners, but none of them will fight in this tournament. Three boxers (Yan Barthelemy, Yuriorkis Gamboa and Odlanier Solis) defected in December of 2006 and two (Guillermo Rigondeaux and Erislandy Lara) were caught trying to defect last year in Brazil. Both were subsequently thrown off the squad as punishment. They may be inexperienced but they are still Cuba, so expect a formidable roster.
They were not on the radar in Sydney or Athens, but experts are projecting U.S. Boxing to shine in the 2012 Olympics in London. And depending how things break, they could be successful in China as well.
