2008 Summer Olympic Games Preview - Boxing

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2008 Summer Olympic Games Preview - Boxing By Casual fans of boxing would be surprised, Sports Network The Sports Network
And they would be surprised to also learn that the force of a punchand its effect on an opponent has no bearing on the officialscoring. So a knockdown, for instance, is scored only as a singlehit (if a fighter is knocked down three times in a single round,however, or four times during the bout, action is halted).
Points can only be registered if at least three of the five Olympicjudges acknowledge the hit within one second of each other bypushing a button.
The winner of the fight is determined by the total number of validpoints at the end of the fourth round. If there is a tie in points,then the best and worst total score registered by the five judgesis deducted and the winner is the fighter with the most points leftfrom the three remaining judges.
Boxers qualify for the Olympics through regional qualifyingtournaments, with importance placed upon the quality of boxing ineach particular region. Once at the Olympics, they are paired forfights at random for a single-elimination tournament.
In other words: You lose, you're out. The only time this maximdoesn't apply is for the two semifinalist losers, who are bothawarded a bronze medal.
It's that last rule that kept the United States team from leavingAthens four years ago with only one medal. Andre Dirrell walked offwith a bronze in the middleweight division after losing hissemifinal.
Andre Ward claimed the first American boxing gold since the 1996Games in Atlanta when he won the light heavyweight final on thelast day of competition in Athens. Ward was expected to be the bestU.S. hope for gold four years ago, and his victory helped soften alackluster performance by the Americans
This year, the United States will be led in Beijing by a pair of2007 world champions: flyweight Rau'shee Warren and welterweightDemetrius Andrade.
Warren will be looking to become the first American flyweight towin Olympic gold since 1984. The 21-year-old Cincinnati, Ohio,native will be the first American boxer to compete in two Olympicsin the last 32 years.
Noted for his speed, Warren was the youngest American male at the2004 Games in Athens as a 17-year-old. Competing as a lightflyweight, he lost in the first round to eventual bronze medalwinner Zou Shiming of China.
Such an exit this year would be a very big disappointment.
The same can be said for Andrade, the two-time National and GoldenGloves champion from Providence, Rhode Island. The 20-year-oldAndrade rolled to the 2007 world championship in the welterweightdivision to earn his berth on the U.S. team.
Join Warren and Andrade on the team are bantamweight Gary RussellJr., featherweight Raynell Williams, lightweight Sadam Ali, lightwelterweight Javier Molina, middleweight Shawn Estrada andheavyweight Deontay Wilder.
Light flyweight Luis Yanez was dimissed from the team for missingmandatory training sessions during camp in June. His appeal to theUSA Boxing Judicial Committee was rejected unanimously, and Yanezhas filed for independent arbitration.
Yanez's place on the team would not be filled by another boxer,potentially leaving the U.S. with just eight representatives inBeijing.
Once in China, the Americans will face stiff competition fromtraditionally strong teams.
Cuba forbids its boxers from entering the professional ranks, sofighters from that country have no better opportunity forinternational recognition than at the Olympic Games.
And they take full advantage.
The Cuban coach in Athens believed his team could win as many aseight of the 11 weight decisions, and he wasn't far off. The Cubansclaimed five golds at the 2004 Games and medaled in three otherclasses.
Their eight total medals were three more than the next closestcountry, Russia, which won five medals in Athens four years afterit led the 2000 Sydney Games with seven.
Thailand, Kazakhstan and Egypt each claimed three medals in Athens.
The boxing program in Beijing begins on August 9, the day after theOpening Ceremony, and runs through two days of finals on August 23and 24.