Boxing at Paris 2024 (Les Jeux de la XXXIII Olympiade)

30-27 x4, 29-28, UD for Chang

 

Chinese men have a 100 year head start but Chinese women now have surpassed them in Olympic boxing medals*; this is their first gold.

*silver and bronze in London, silver and two bronze in Rio, two silver in Tokyo, and now silver & gold in Paris.

 

Men's 51kg and Women's 54kg medal ceremonies about to commence.

 

I remember being impressed by both bronze medalists (Daniel David Varela de Pina of Cape Verde and Yunior Alcántara Reyes of the Dominican Republic)

 

How many times are we going to be hearing the bloody national anthem of Uzbekistan over the next couple of days?

 

Tradition continues of the bronze winners, having already had a day or two for emotionally processing their results, being all smiles while the athlete that outpace them with silver is still barely concealing their bitter disappointment at having just lost.

 

Okay this next one is going to be super awkward... of course we just saw Akbaş vs. Chang, but the women they respectively defeated to get there were Im Ae-Ji and Chol Mi Pang - from South and North Korea.

Difficult to imagine they'll be chumming around with their arms over each other's shoulders posing for pics like Alcántara Reyes and DDVDP were.

 

I like how they give a quick musically accompanied highlight recap of the semis to refresh your memory on the other two combatants on the podium that haven't just fought.

 

Side by side, zero eye contact. Im Ae-Ji grinning ear to ear, Chol Mi Pang stone-faced.