U.S. Olympic boxing team closer to being named after trials

By OlympicTalkDec 16, 2019, 9:05 AM EST

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A U.S. Olympic boxing team that will be exclusively first-time Olympians is closer to being named.

A total of 27 boxers advanced from the Olympic trials in a complicated process that will likely be finalized at a last-chance global qualifying tournament in May in Paris.

Before that, every Olympic trials finalist from the eight men’s divisions and five women’s divisions goes into the new year with a chance at the Tokyo Games. Plus super heavyweight Richard Torrez Jr., who missed trials with a medical exemption.

But the U.S. is not guaranteed any Olympic boxing spots.

A training camp and international tournament in January will determine the one boxer per division (13 total) who will then compete internationally to clinch an Olympic berth.

Each may get two chances to qualify — a North and South American tournament in Buenos Aires from March 26-April 3 and the global event in Paris two weeks later.

The best U.S. Olympic medal hopes include flyweight Ginny Fuchs, who won her second straight trials title. Four years ago, Fuchs failed to secure her spot at the Rio Games in international qualifiers.

Instead, she went to Brazil as a sparring partner for qualified U.S. women and couldn’t bear to watch the Opening Ceremony from off-site. Fuchs, a 2018 World bronze medalist, skipped this year’s world championships to manage obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Keyshawn Davis was the only U.S. male or female boxer to make a final in an Olympic division at the world championships this year, taking lightweight silver. Davis, 20, won trials after his scheduled final opponent missed the bout for medical reasons.

None of the more than 100 boxers who competed at trials at the Golden Nugget Casino and Resort in Lake Charles, La., had Olympic experience. Stars from Rio, including gold medalist Claressa Shields and silver medalist Shakur Stevenson, have turned pro.

A full list of the 27 boxers who advanced from trials:

Men
Flyweight
Abraham Perez (trials champion)
Anthony Herrera

Featherweight
Bruce Carrington (trials champion)
David Navarro

Lightweight
Keyshawn Davis (trials champion)
Ernesto Mercado

Welterweight
Delante “Tiger” Johnson (trials champion)
Freudis Rojas Jr.

Middleweight (Monday box-off)
Joseph Hicks
Javier Martinez

Light Heavyweight
Rahim Gonzales (trials champion)
Atif Olberton

Heavyweight (Monday box-off)
Jamar Talley
Darius Fulghum

Super Heavyweight
Antonio Mireles (trials champion)
Jeremiah Milton
Richard Torrez Jr. (medical exemption)

Women
Flyweight
Ginny Fuchs (trials champion)
Christina Cruz

Featherweight (Monday box-off)
Lupe Gutierrez
Andrea Medina

Lightweight
Rashida Ellis (trials champion)
Amelia Moore

Welterweight
Oshae Jones (trials champion)
Briana Che

Middleweight
Naomi Graham (trials champion)
Morelle McCane

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2023 French Open men’s singles draw

By OlympicTalkJun 7, 2023, 5:18 PM EDT

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The French Open men’s singles draw is missing injured 14-time champion Rafael Nadal for the first time since 2004, leaving the Coupe des Mousquetaires ripe for the taking.

The tournament airs live on NBC Sports, Peacock and Tennis Channel through championship points in Paris.

Novak Djokovic is not only bidding for a third crown at Roland Garros, but also to lift a 23rd Grand Slam singles trophy to break his tie with Nadal for the most in men’s history.

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But the No. 1 seed is Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who won last year’s U.S. Open to become, at 19, the youngest man to win a major since Nadal’s first French Open title in 2005.

Now Alcaraz looks to become the second-youngest man to win at Roland Garros since 1989, after Nadal of course.

Alcaraz missed the Australian Open in January due to a right leg injury, but since went 30-3 with four titles. Notably, he has not faced Djokovic this year. They meet in Friday’s semifinals.

Russian Daniil Medvedev, the No. 2 seed, was upset in the first round by 172nd-ranked Brazilian qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild. It marked the first time a men’s top-two seed lost in the first round of any major since 2003 Wimbledon (Ivo Karlovic d. Lleyton Hewitt).

All of the American men lost before the fourth round. The last U.S. man to make the French Open quarterfinals was Andre Agassi in 2003.

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IOC board recommends withdrawing International Boxing Association’s recognition

Associated PressJun 7, 2023, 2:30 PM EDT

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The IOC finally ran out of patience with the International Boxing Federation on Wednesday and set a date to terminate its Olympic status this month.

While boxing will still be on the program at the 2024 Paris Games, the International Olympic Committee said its executive board has asked the full membership to withdraw its recognition of the IBA at a special meeting on June 22.

IOC members rarely vote against recommendations from their 15-member board and the IBA’s ouster is likely a formality.

The IOC had already suspended the IBA’s recognition in 2019 over long-standing financial, sports integrity and governance issues. The Olympic body oversaw the boxing competitions itself at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021 and will do so again for Paris.

An IOC statement said the boxing body “has failed to fulfil the conditions set by the IOC … for lifting the suspension of the IBA’s recognition.”

The IBA criticized what it called a “truly abhorrent and purely political” decision by the IOC and warned of “retaliatory measures.”

“Now, we are left with no chance but to demand a fair assessment from a competent court,” the boxing body’s Russian president Umar Kremlev said in a statement.

The IOC-IBA standoff has also put boxing’s place at the 2028 Los Angeles Games at risk, though that should now be resolved.

The IOC previously stressed it has no problem with the sport or its athletes — just the IBA and its current president Kremlev, plus financial dependence on Russian state energy firm Gazprom.

In a 24-page report on IBA issues published Wednesday, the IOC concluded “the accumulation of all of these points, and the constant lack of drastic evolution throughout the many years, creates a situation of no-return.”

Olympic boxing’s reputation has been in question for decades. Tensions heightened after boxing officials worldwide ousted long-time IOC member C.K. Wu as their president in 2017 when the organization was known by its French acronym AIBA.

“From a disreputable organization named AIBA governed by someone from the IOC’s upper echelon, we committed to and executed a change in the toxic and corrupt culture that was allowed to fester under the IOC for far too long,” Kremlev said Wednesday in a statement.

National federations then defied IOC warnings in 2018 by electing as their president Gafur Rakhimov, a businessman from Uzbekistan with alleged ties to organized crime and heroin trafficking.

Kremlev’s election to replace Rakhimov in 2020 followed another round of IOC warnings that went unheeded.

Amid the IBA turmoil, a rival organization called World Boxing has attracted initial support from officials in the United States, Switzerland and Britain.

The IBA can still continue to organize its own events and held the men’s world championships last month in the Uzbek capital Tashkent.

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