The eight members of the 2016 U.S. Olympic Boxing Team now know their opening round foes at the 2016 Olympic Games. The official tournament draw took place on Thursday morning at the Teatro Bradesco in Rio de Janeiro. All 13 weight divisions learned their road to the Olympic medal stand at the Olympic Games on Thursday.
“We’re very happy at this stage. We’ve been sitting on edge for the last week or so waiting for the draw. We’re happy to know where we are at. We’re ready to roll. The team’s been ready for awhile. They’re all excited to get in to the Olympic arena and produce some of the best performances,” U.S. Olympic Boxing Coach Billy Walsh said. “We’re going to take it one fight at a time, one round at a time, one minute at a time and we’ll work our way from there.”
Lightweight Carlos Balderas (Santa Maria, Calif.) will open competition for the United States in a bout with Kazakhstan’s Berik Abdrahkhmanov in the early session on Saturday. Light flyweight Nico Hernandez (Wichita, Kansas) will compete on the first day of action at the Riocentro Pavilion 6 as well. Hernandez will face off with Italy’s Manuel Cappai in light flyweight competition on Saturday night.
Male middleweight Charles Conwell (Cleveland Heights, Ohio) will make his Olympic debut on Monday evening in a bout with India’s Krishan Vikas.
Light welterweight Gary Antuanne Russell (Capitol Heights, Md.) will be the fourth American boxer to compete in Rio de Janeiro. Russell will challenge a familiar face in his opening contest on August 10, taking on Haiti’s Richardson Hitchins in preliminary round competition.
The women will take the ring for the first time on August 12 and female lightweight Mikaela Mayer (Los Angeles, Calif.) will open her Olympic Games in a bout with Jennifer Chieng from the Federated States of Micronesia in the evening session.
2015 Pan American Games champion Antonio Vargas (Kissimmee, Fla.) will return to the international stage on August 13 as he faces host nation boxer Juliao Neto of Brazil.
Two American boxers received first round byes in the draw based on their seeding. Junior and Youth World Champion and Youth Olympic Games gold medalist Shakur Stevenson (Newark, N.J.) was the number four seed in his bantamweight division and therefore received an opening round bye. He will compete for the first time on August 14 against the winner of the first round match-up between Brazil and Algeria.
2012 Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion Claressa Shields (Flint, Mich.) entered the Olympic Games as the number one seed. She therefore received an opening round bye and will step in the to the ring on August 17 where she will face the victor of a bout between Chinese Taipei and Russia.
Boxing competition will take place in two sessions daily at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., at the the Rioecentro Pavilion 6. Full tournament brackets should be posted on www.aiba.org shortly.
Opening Round Bouts
108 lbs/male: Nico Hernandez, Wichita, Kansas vs. Manuel Cappai, ITA on August 6
114 lbs/male: Antonio Vargas, Kissimmee, Fla./USA vs. Juliao Neto, FRA on August 13
123 lbs/male: Shakur Stevenson, Newark, N.J./USA vs. winner of Brazil and Algeria after first round bye on August 14
132 lbs/male: Carlos Balderas, Santa Maria, Calif./USA vs. Berik Abdrahkhmanov, KAZ on August 6
132 lbs/female: Mikaela Mayer, Los Angeles, Calif./USA vs. Jennifer Chieng, FSM on August 12
141 lbs/male: Gary Antuanne Russell, Capitol Heights, Md./USA vs. Richardson Hitchins, HAI, on August 10
165 lbs/male: Charles Conwell, Cleveland Heights, Ohio/USA vs. Krishan Vikas, IND on August 8
165 lbs/female: Claressa Shields, Flint, Mich./USA vs. winner of TPE/RUS on August 17
Full Rio Olympic Boxing Draw Update
Official draw for the Rio 2016 Olympic Boxing Tournament sets the tone for one of the Olympic Games’ most exciting boxing tournaments of all time
The official draw for the Rio 2016 Olympic Boxing Tournament took place in Barra da Tijuca on Thursday morning, watched by technical commissions from the 76 nations taking part and the world’s media ahead of one of the most eagerly anticipated events at Rio 2016. AIBA Executive Director Karim Bouzidi opened the event that gave the first indication of the Olympic destiny of the 286 competitors whose names went in to the draw. The competition will run from 6-21 August, held in Riocentro Pavilion 6.
Rio 2016 Boxing Technical Delegate Helmut Ranze led the draw, starting with the Women’s Flyweights (51kg), where Britain’s Nicola Adams, the first of three defending women champions in action in Rio, will start the defence of her title against the winner between Bulgarian Stanimira Petrova and Tetyana Kob of Ukraine. At Lightweight (60kg), London 2012 champion Katie Taylor of Ireland could face Brazil’s Adriana Araujo in the second round, while World Champion Estelle Mossely will meet the winner of the first round bout between Italy’s Irma Testa and Australian Shelley Marie Watts on 12 August. The USA’s Claressa Shields will be hoping to feature in the Middleweight (75kg) final on 21 August, but a tough top half of the draw includes Morocco’s Khadija Mardi and Canadian Ariane Fortin.
The very first bout of the tournament on the morning of 6 August will be the Light Flyweight (49kg) contest between Britain’s Galal Yafai and Cameroon’s Simplice Fotsala, with the winner going on to face top-seed Johanys Argilagos of Cuba two days later. A tough, 26-strong Flyweight (52kg) field sees Azeri top seed Elvin Mamishzade in the same half of the draw as USA’s Antonio Vargas, Britain’s Muhammad Ali and Algerian Mohamed Flissi, while second and third-seeds Yosbany Veitia of Cuba and Russi’s Misha Aloian could be on course for a potential semi-final showdown.
At Bantamweight, Uzbek second-seed Murodjon Akhmadaliev’s bye will see him face Kazakhstan’s Kairat Yeraliyev or Azeri Javid Chalabiyev on 14 August, while US medal hope Shakur Stevenson will get his Olympic campaign underway against the winner between Algeria’s Fahem Hammachi and Brazilian Robenilson de Jesus. De Jesus’ Lightweight (60kg) compatriot Robson Conceição begins his third pursuit of Olympic gold on 9 August against the winner of the opening day’s bout between China’s Jun Shan and Tajikstan’s Anvar Yunusov.
In the Light Welterweight (64kg) competition, Cuban second-seed Yasniel Toledo will meet either Britain’s Pat McCormack or Kazakhstan’s Ablaikhan Zhussupov in the second round on 14 August, with Russian top-seed Vitaly Dunaytsev another favourite for gold. Morocco’s Mohammed Rabii and Cuban Roniel Iglesias find themselves in the same half of the Welterweight (69kg) draw, and both will have designs on the gold-medal match on 17 August. Cuban Middleweight (75kg) Arlen Lopez and Russia’s Artem Chebotarev could be on course for a semi-final showdown on 18 August, though the likes of Ecuador’s Marlo Delgado and Frenchman Christian Mbilli could prove stiff opposition.
Cuban captain and Light Heavyweight (81kg) medal hopeful Julio Cesar la Cruz gets his Olympic campaign underway on 10 August against the winner out of Mehmet Nadir Unal of Turkey and Moroccan Hassan Saada, while of the 18 Heavyweight (91kg) boxers beginning the competition, Kazakhstan’s experienced Vassily Levit and Clemente Russo of Italy will be looking to push Russian top-seed Evgeny Tishchenko all the way. The final gold medal of Rio 2016 will be awarded at Super Heavyweight (+91kg), where France’s World Champion Tony Yoka and the runner-up in Doha, Ivan Dychko of Kazakhstan, are at opposite ends of a draw that also features the talent of Britain’s Joe Joyce, Cuba’s Leinier Pero and the Croatian Filip Hrgovic.
You can see the full draw here.
