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After three Olympic boxing qualifiers during a year of pain, a dozen broken hearts, bad decisions, tears, sweat and blood, the first bell for the British boxers at Paris 2024 is finally close.
Six members of the Team GB squad will be in Friday’s draw for the preliminary bouts in the 13 weights that are spread across 14 days of boxing. No other Olympic sport competes over the same number of days.
It is a mixed squad, a small squad compared to those from the last three Olympic boxing tournaments; the cycle has only been three years and since winning six medals in Tokyo in 2021, 10 of the team of 11 have turned professional. There are other reasons that British boxers will only be competing in six of the 13 weights in Paris, but too often the valid obstructions and distractions can sound like excuses; there are no excuses, it is hard to qualify for the Olympics.
In 1996 and 2000 just two went, in 2004 it was just one; the packed squads from the last three Games have given a false impression that simply pulling on the vest was enough to get a golden ticket to the greatest platform in sport. In Tokyo, three short summers ago, the GB boxers shared the top spot for medals with the Russians, beating the mighty Cubans by one.
Charley Davison is back for more. In Tokyo, it was too soon for Davison, who had only stopped being a full-time mum of three the previous year; this time she is better prepared and seasoned at 54 kilos. In Tokyo, after her seven-year break, she was boiled down to 51 kilos. She won and then lost; the new Olympic weight will suit her. There are six women’s weights, up from just three when women were allowed entry back in 2012.
The men lost a couple of categories and the women gained one, which is not ideal. The men lost the middleweight division and now there is a nine-kilo hole in the middle of their seven weights. It is, as I said, not ideal and the reduction cost Britain a place.
Rosie Eccles was close to qualifying for Tokyo, but had her dreams crushed, won the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and qualified for Paris last July at the European Games in Poland. Eccles at 66 kilos can beat any of the women in her weight.
Delicious Orie also qualified last year at the first of three Olympic qualifiers and won the Commonwealth Games in 2022. Orie is the latest super-heavyweight to represent GB at the Olympics, walking in a rich and recent tradition. At the last six Olympics, British men have won five medals, including two golds, at the weight. It will be a rough passage for Orie, but he is a big-event fighter and this ridiculous platform will suit him.
Heavyweight Patrick Brown and middleweight Chantelle Reid reached the Olympics at the second qualifier in Italy; Lewis Richardson was the last man to make it and he qualified right at the very end of the final event in Bangkok, which was last month. Richardson, like Eccles, also had dreams of boxing in Tokyo.
The GB team also has middleweight Cindy Ngambo, part of the Refugee Team in Paris. Ngambo has been part of Team GB for a long time and GB coaches will be in the corner with her when she fights. Ngambo’s story is one of faith, confusion and bad luck. She has lived in Bolton since she was 11 and she is 25 now; if she had a British passport, she would be in the squad.
The squad is an odd mix, but there are enough seasoned boxers spread across the six weights to get close to medals. It is not a bad squad and, like all boxing squads at every single Olympics, a lot depends on the first few fights and the momentum.
On Saturday and Sunday, Davison, Eccles, Brown and Richardson could all be in action, and they could all do with a bit of luck in the draw.
