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

Right? Like, I'm not sure that IBA even owns the copyrights to use the name of the 19th century English amateur heavyweight. Or if they do, how legally binding it would be if they contested it considering it was always meant to crown the best p4p in the Olympics, from which IBA has been ousted.

IB Funfact: the awarding of a Val Barker trophy predates the very formation of AIBA by an entire decade! (so they were custodians of it for a while, but didn't invent the concept or anything)

It just sucks for all the worthy athletes in Tokyo and now Paris to be deprived of the honor. It also sucks that Claressa Shields will forever remain the only female Val Barker trophy winner, when Kellie Harrington would've wiped the floor with her even jumping up two divisions.

 

Four truly stellar performance against Yang, Ferreria, Valdés, and Mesiano. You could make the argument that she's threatening Katie Taylor's status as the Irish women's amateur GOAT.

KT has more international tourney golds (though Kellie has a few of her own - AIBA world championships, Euro Games, and European Championships - plus a slew of silver & bronze in all three), but only the one at the Olympics.

Kellie has been victorious in 101 bouts of her 120 - good for 84%. Katie meanwhile a staggering 170 in 189, just shy of 90%.

In the conversation at least.

 

Podium ceremony.

ShihYi Wu and Beatriz Iasmin Soares Ferreira both smilingly and graciously accept their bronze, and then an understandably nonplussed looking Wenlu Yang is given her silver before the huge moment. Kellie Anne Harrington stands tall, with happy tears streaming freely down her face as the whole Paris crowd - both Irish partisans and not - showers love on her.

 

The final four pose for a pic with their medals. Literally everyone except Yang is beaming.

She's trying to force out a Mona Lisa.

 

Oh and Shih-Yi Wu? Would.

https://boxrec.com/wiki/thumb.php?f=ShihYi_Wu.JPG&width=200

https://image.taiwannews.com.tw/2024/08/01/6345a294cef441a99df1e037732dd2fa.png

 

Reupped.

https://i.ibb.co/cQfGt0n/Shih-Yi-Wu.webp

 

Schedule for the remainder of the week:

• WEDNESDAY - starting at 2030 local time in Paris (3:30pm EST)
  
  Women's 57kg Semifinals #1: Yu Ting Lin (TPE) vs. Esra Yıldız Kahraman (TUR)
  
  Women's 57kg Semifinals #2: Nesthy Petecio (PHI) vs. Julia Szeremeta (POL)
  
  Men's 92+kg Semifinals #1: Nelvie Tiafack (GER) vs. Bakhodir Jalolov (UZB)
  
  Men's 92+kg Semifinals #2: Djamili-Dini Aboudou Moindze (FRA) vs. Ayoub Ghadfa Drissi El Aissaoui (ESP)
  
  Men's 63.5kg FINALS: Sofiane Oumiha (FRA) vs. Erislandy Álvarez Borges (CUB)
  
  Men's 80kg FINALS: Nurbek Oralbay (KAZ) vs. Oleksandr Khyzhniak (UKR)

• THURSDAY - starting at 2030 local time in Paris (3:30pm EST)
  
  Men's 57kg Semifinals #1: Abdumalik Khalokov (UZB) vs. Charlie Senior (AUS)
  
  Men's 57kg Semifinals #2: Javier Ibáñez (BUL) vs. Munarbek Seiitbek Uulu (KGZ)
  
  Women's 75kg Semifinals #1: Qian Li (CHN) vs. Caitlin Parker (AUS)
  
  Women's 75kg Semifinals #2: Cindy Winner Djankeu Ngamba (EOR) vs. Atheyna Bibeichi Bylon (PAN)
  
  Men's 51kg FINALS: Billal Bennama (FRA) vs. Hasanboy Dusmatov (UZB)
  
  Women's 54kg FINALS: Yuan Chang (CHN) vs. Hatice Akbaş (TUR)

• FRIDAY - starting at 2030 local time in Paris (3:30pm EST)
  
  Men's 71kg FINALS: Asadkhuja Muydinkhujaev (UZB) vs. Marco Alonso Verde Álvarez (MEX)
  
  Women's 50kg FINALS: Yu Wu (CHN) vs. Buse Naz Çakıroğlu (TUR)
  
  Men's 92kg FINALS: Loren Berto Alfonso Domínguez (AZE) vs. Lazizbek Mullojonov (UZB)
  
  Women's 66kg FINALS: Imane Khelif (ALG) vs. Liu Yang (CHN)

• SATURDAY - starting at 2030 local time in Paris (3:30pm EST)
  
  Women's 57kg FINALS (winner of Lin vs. Yıldız Kahraman taking on the winner of Petecio vs. Szeremeta)
  
  Men's 57kg FINALS (winner of Khalokov vs. Senior taking on the winner of Ibáñez vs. Uulu)
  
  Women's 75kg FINALS (winner of Li vs. Parker taking on the winner of Ngamba vs. Bibeichi Bylon)
  
  Men's 92+kg FINALS (winner of Tiafack vs. Jalolov taking on the winner of Aboudou Moindze vs. Ghadfa)
  
  Medal Ceremonies to follow after the conclusion of the Men's 92+kg finals

Tomorrow and Thursday will crown two champions each, alongside the last batch of semifinals in four divisions (Wednesday's quartet of semifinal winners box for gold on Friday, and Thursday's semifinal winners on Saturday - giving those advancing one full day of rest). Friday & Saturday will be all for the gold in the remaining categories.

 

I was worried when it came up she had some tweets people claimed were pushing racism or xenophobia, but she clarified it pretty well and seemed like a good faith error.

Long story short to save folks a click:

“Last October, I reposted a tweet of a video from a journalist (whom I did not know at the time) detailing the story of a young girl in France who was kidnapped and murdered. Moved by the horrific circumstances of this story, I reposted a video of this journalist together with a copy of a quote. My thoughts in that moment were of that young girl and not any political opinion. Having realised the significance of my tweet and the hurt caused to a number of people I immediately deleted the tweet. I engaged privately with a number of people who were hurt by my tweet and I apologised to them. As a sporting role model, I am aware that I need to be mindful of what I do and say. I reacted with my emotions and without the facts. How this came across is not reflective of me as a person or my thoughts."

...it was re: a French girl murdered by four Algerian migrants in 2022. She had retweeted a Dutch journo whom it turns out was using the girl's death to push a strong political agenda against migrants. There were initially calls for Harrington to be dropped as spokeswoman for Spar (a convenience store chain throughout Europe but highly prevalent in Northern Ireland especially, with over 400 stores there) but after her statement above they've happily kept her on.

 

Kind of insane that a dark horse country like Türkiye has three competitors left in the Olympics at this stage while the US and UK both have been altogether eliminated - and former powerhouses like Kazakhstan and Cuba each are left with just a single athlete representing them.

Poland, Spain, Taipei, Panama, Bulgaria, Algeria, Germany, and the goddamn refugees all outlasting the American or British teams wasn't on my bingo card, either.