Charles Albert

Abraham Shalevski was born in the Russian Empire, but grew up in the 4th arrondissement of Paris alongside several brothers and sisters. Competing under the ring name Charles Albert, he trained under noted boxer Louis Lerda at his boxing club located in the Latin Quarter, coming up through the Parisian amateur boxing ranks as a novice in the late 1910s, before winning the 1920 Paris amateur flyweight title. Chosen as a member of the French boxing delegation to compete at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerpen (Antwerp), Charles Albert defeated competitors from Italy, Belgium and the United States before losing the bronze medal bout in a decision to Great Britain’s William Cuthbertson.

Five months later, in January 1921, Shalevski boarded a ship at the port of Le Havre to emigrate to the United States to join his older brother Hyman, who was living in New York City. There, he resided in Brooklyn where he worked as a furrier, stating his name as Charles Albert Shalevski upon his naturalization as an American citizen in 1927. He eventually dropped his surname altogether, becoming known by his former ring name, Charles Albert, for the remainder of his life. He married in 1963, and continued to reside in the New York City area until his death in 1986.