Boxing at the 1996 Summer Olympics

Dates 20 July – 4 August 1996
Medal Events 12

After the major changes seen between Seoul and Barcelona, the format of the tournament and method of judging remained more or less the same for Atlanta. The change to electronic scoring had still not eliminated the judging controversies seen in previous years but it was still seen as an improvement on the debacle of the 1988 Games. It was widely assumed that the story of the Atlanta Games would be that of the duel between Cuba and America for boxing supremacy although the USA had not had a good World Championship performance in the 1995 and had left with only one gold medallist to their credit. This projection proved only to be partially true as, despite qualifying six boxers for the semi-finals, the USA again produced only a single gold medal winner in David Reid though his spectacular knockout victory over Cuban Alfredo Duvergel was an undoubted highlight of the tournament. Cubans reached seven finals and, led by defending heavyweight champion Félix Savón, won four Olympic titles – the only country to produce multiple champions. Elsewhere the expected decline in the fortune of fighters from the Eastern Bloc in the post-communist era failed to materialize as Bulgaria, Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine all produced gold medallists. Instead it was Western Europe that failed to produce an Olympic champion for the 1st time since 1976.

Vasily Zhirov the light-heavyweight champion from Kazakhstan, was awarded the Val Barker Trophy for most outstanding boxer of the Games whilst featherweight Somluck Kamsing’s rewards for being Thailand’s first Olympic champion included $1 million in bonuses from the Thai government and his sponsors. Amongst the fighters who later excelled in the professional side of the sport were Volodymyr Klychko, one of the longest reigning world heavyweight champions of all time, Floyd Mayweather, Jr., sport’s biggest earner for most of his career, and 4-time world champion Antonio Tarver.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Light-Flyweight (≤48 kilograms), Men Olympic 21 July – 3 August 1996 30 30
Flyweight (≤51 kilograms), Men Olympic 23 July – 4 August 1996 32 32
Bantamweight (≤54 kilograms), Men Olympic 20 July – 3 August 1996 31 31
Featherweight (≤57 kilograms), Men Olympic 22 July – 4 August 1996 31 31
Lightweight (≤60 kilograms), Men Olympic 21 July – 3 August 1996 31 31
Light-Welterweight (≤63.5 kilograms), Men Olympic 24 July – 4 August 1996 32 32
Welterweight (≤67 kilograms), Men Olympic 20 July – 3 August 1996 32 32
Light-Middleweight (≤71 kilograms), Men Olympic 23 July – 3 August 1996 31 31
Middleweight (≤75 kilograms), Men Olympic 22 July – 3 August 1996 31 31
Light-Heavyweight (≤81 kilograms), Men Olympic 24 July – 4 August 1996 31 31
Heavyweight (≤91 kilograms), Men Olympic 21 July – 3 August 1996 24 24
Super-Heavyweight (>91 kilograms), Men Olympic 23 July – 4 August 1996 19 19
355 (355/0) 97 (97/0)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Light-Flyweight, Men Daniel BozhinovBUL Mansueto VelascoPHI Rafael Lozano
Oleh Kiriukhin
ESP
UKR
Flyweight, Men Maikro RomeroCUB Bolat ZhumadilovKAZ Zoltan Lunka
Albert Pakeyev
GER
RUS
Bantamweight, Men István KovácsHUN Arnaldo MesaCUB Raimkul Malakhbekov
Vichai Khadpo
RUS
THA
Featherweight, Men Somluck KamsingTHA Serafim TodorovBUL Pablo Chacón
Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
ARG
USA
Lightweight, Men Hocine SoltaniALG Toncho TonchevBUL Leonard Doroftei
Terrance Cauthen
ROU
USA
Light-Welterweight, Men Héctor VinentCUB Oktay UrkalGER Bolat Niyazymbetov
Fathi Missaoui
KAZ
TUN
Welterweight, Men Oleg SaitovRUS Juan Hernández SierraCUB Daniel Santos
Marian Simion
PUR
ROU
Light-Middleweight, Men David ReidUSA Alfredo DuvergelCUB Yermakhan Ibraimov
Karim Tulaganov
KAZ
UZB
Middleweight, Men Ariel HernándezCUB Malik BeyleroğluTUR Mohamed Bahari
Rhoshii Wells
ALG
USA
Light-Heavyweight, Men Vasily ZhirovKAZ Lee Seung-BaeKOR Thomas Ulrich
Antonio Tarver
GER
USA
Heavyweight, Men Félix SavónCUB David DefiagbonCAN Luan Krasniqi
Nate Jones
GER
USA
Super-Heavyweight, Men Volodymyr KlychkoUKR Paea WolfgrammTGA Duncan Dokiwari
Aleksey Lezin
NGR
RUS

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
Cuba CUB 4 3 0 7
Bulgaria BUL 1 2 0 3
Kazakhstan KAZ 1 1 2 4
United States USA 1 0 5 6
Russian Federation RUS 1 0 3 4
Algeria ALG 1 0 1 2
Thailand THA 1 0 1 2
Ukraine UKR 1 0 1 2
Hungary HUN 1 0 0 1
Germany GER 0 1 3 4
Canada CAN 0 1 0 1
Philippines PHI 0 1 0 1
Republic of Korea KOR 0 1 0 1
Tonga TGA 0 1 0 1
Türkiye TUR 0 1 0 1
Romania ROU 0 0 2 2
Argentina ARG 0 0 1 1
Nigeria NGR 0 0 1 1
Puerto Rico PUR 0 0 1 1
Spain ESP 0 0 1 1
Tunisia TUN 0 0 1 1
Uzbekistan UZB 0 0 1 1