Featherweight (≤57 kilograms), Men

The 1999 World Champion in this class was the United States’ Rocky Suarez who won an easy first-round match and then survived a hard-fought decision against Germany’s Falk Huste, 17-15. This brought Suarez up against the defending gold medalist, Somluck Kamsing of Thailand, but Suarez took him out in the fourth round, when the referee stopped the contest. The semi-finals saw him facing Russia’s Kamil Dzhamaludinov, silver medalist at the 1999 Worlds in the bantamweights. Juarez won easily to make the final against the completely unknown Kazakh fighter Bekzat Sattarkhanov. But Sattarkhanov jumped out to a big lead after two rounds and held on to win, 22-14, although the United States’ coaches protested the decision, to no avail.

Three months later Sattarkhanov was dead, killed in a car crash back in Kazakhstan on New Year’s Eve. Turning pro after the Olympics, Juarez won his first 23 fights, but then his career hit the skids and through June 2012, his professional record stood at 28-10-1.