A bronze medal for Harry Garside in Tokyo ended a 33-year medal drought for Australia in Boxing at the Olympic Games. Now with the biggest-ever team heading to a Games, hopes are high in Paris for another breakthrough win and the country’s first-ever Olympic Boxing gold medal.
Overview
Australia is sending a record-breaking 12 athletes to Paris, the most of any country at the 2024 Games and is represented in all divisions with the exception of the men’s 92kg division.
Harry (63.5kg) and World Championship silver medallist Caitlin Parker (75kg) return for their second Games, while Monique Suraci (50kg), Tiana Echegaray (54kg), Tina Rahimi (57kg), Tyla McDonald (60kg), Marissa Williamson Pohlman (66kg), Teremoana Teremoana (92+kg), Shannan Davey (71kg), Callum Peters (80kg), Charlie Senior (57kg) and Yusuf Chothia (51kg) all make their Olympic debut.
Caitlin is creating further history by becoming the first woman to box at two Olympics for Australia, while Marissa is the first Australian female Indigenous boxer and Tina the first Australian female Muslim boxer.
The 12-strong team eclipses London 2012 (11 athletes) and includes the most female boxers Australia has sent, with the six women to compete in Paris tripling the previous high of two at Tokyo 2020.
The boxing competition runs from Saturday 27 July to Saturday 10 August at the North Paris Arena in Villepinte and at Roland-Garros Stadium in Paris.
Ones to Watch
Australia
Both returning Olympians Harry and Caitlin come into Paris with one goal in mind: gold.
Caitlin was eliminated in the first round in Tokyo but steps into the ring in Paris off the back of a silver at the 2023 World Championships and a bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. She also won gold at the 2023 Pacific Games, a silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and bronze at the 2014 Youth Olympics.
Meanwhile, Harry has ridden the wave of popularity and success that has come from his Tokyo medal triumph. He turned professional in 2022 and won his first three fights, two of them by knockout, and claimed the Australian lightweight title. The Olympic dream remained however, and Harry switched back to Olympic boxing in 2023, where in November of that year he took gold at the Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands to book his ticket to his second Games.
International
In the men’s competition, two Cuban boxers are looking to join a rare club as triple Olympic gold medallists in boxing, which has only been achieved three times prior. Arlen López (80kg) and Julio César La Cruz (92kg) could join countrymen Félix Savón and Teófilo Stevenson, as well as Hungarian László Papp, in the triple gold club if they take out the top prize in Paris.
In the women’s competition, Ireland’s Kellie Harrington (60kg) and Turkey’s Busenaz Sürmeneli (66kg) are aiming to join the double Olympic gold club, which currently only has two members. Should either claim back-to-back gold, they would join Britain’s Nicola Adams and USA’s Claressa Shields as dual Olympic Champions.
Sport Format
The boxing tournament in Paris is organised as a direct elimination competition with seven men's (51kg, 57kg, 63.5kg, 71kg, 80kg, 92kg & 92+kg) and six women's (50kg, 54kg, 57kg, 60kg, 66kg & 75kg) events. This is one less for men since Tokyo, and one more for women.
Boxers compete in three-round bouts, each lasting three minutes, with a one-minute rest period between the rounds.
Eight boxers are seeded, and the remaining boxers are randomly drawn. The losers are automatically eliminated and the winners progress through the following phases until two boxers are left to box for the gold medal bout.
The winner is awarded the gold medal and the loser, the silver medal. Two bronze medals are awarded to the losers of the semifinals.
Only one boxer per event per country is permitted.
Competition Schedule
Boxing begins on 27 July at 11.30pm AEST with the women’s 54kg preliminaries round of 32. Session times and divisions vary each day, with the medal rounds beginning at 5.30am AEST on 6 August.
This article was originally written for The Australian Olympic Team. You can read the published version here
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