Turmoil pushes American team on the ropes

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jun 10, 2007 | by MILO F. BRYANT Gazette Sports columnist

Fast forward a moment.

Travel to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing -- specifically the Worker's Indoor Arena, site of boxing for the Games.

What kind of an American team will we see?

Will it remind us of USA Boxing's past glory? Or will it remain a manifestation of USA Boxing's problems?

The United States sent nine boxers to the 2004 Athens Olympics and garnered a gold medal and a bronze. In the 2000 Sydney Olympics, American boxers earned two silver and two bronze medals.

Those medal counts are a harsh contrast to a USA Boxing history littered with names such as Cassius Clay, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, the Spinks brothers -- Leon and Michael -- Ray Leonard, Roy Jones Jr., Oscar De La Hoya and Evander Holyfield.

The Soviet Union, Cuba and East Germany boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the U.S. team won 11 medals, nine gold. Four years later, in Seoul, South Korea, there were no boycotts, yet the U.S. team showed its depth by winning eight medals, including three gold.

Back to the present.

The answer to the question, "What happened to USA Boxing?" is an explanation more extensive than the space in this column will allow. The U.S. Olympic Committee put USA Boxing on probation in 2002 with a list of mandates and reform requests. USA Boxing complied with only one and was told to reform its governing structure last year or face dismissal.

In a letter to the USA Boxing membership, then USA Boxing president, Bill Meartz wrote: "What we at USA Boxing have to do is take a good look at ourselves in the mirror. We need to be honest with ourselves. OUR GOVERNANCE HAS NOT BEEN SUCCESSFUL BY ANY MEASURE. Our medal count is down, our organization is divided, we do not have a working strategic plan, and we are not self-sufficient; rather we are dependent on A2P and USOC money, both (of) which have been withdrawn as a result of governance issues. The primary complaints of the LBCs (local boxing clubs) are that they are not represented by the elected governance, and that the national office is not responsive to their needs. We have failed to keep an executive director, and failed to provide the national office with the resources and expertise to accomplish the mission and goals of the organization."

That letter was written before last summer's reorganization.

The following is an excerpt from a March 17 letter, also written to the membership:

"From my current position as acting executive director, I see that USA Boxing is now, once again, at a crossroads," John Stavros wrote. "Either we can work together to fulfill our mission or we can continue to witness the collapse of our organization."

With that as the backdrop, USA Boxing coach Dan Campbell must do the seemingly impossible and field a competitive team in Beijing.

And those are just the problems within USA Boxing. Campbell has to hope he can mold the fighters who win August's Olympic trials, too. The international fight game is different, more desperate, than what we have here.

"We box because we want to box; we box because we love it," super heavyweight Mike Wilson said after Saturday's U.S. Boxing Championships at the Antlers Hilton. "They box because they have to box. They box because they got to eat."

During preparation, there's another level of determination one must reach when livelihood is at stake. Campbell's charge is to get his team to block out the organization's issues and outside influences and enable it to match the international boxers' purpose.

"The international boxers bring a lot of experience in all weight classes," Fort Carson boxer Christopher Downs said. "Those guys compete internationally all the time. We just have to have more willpower. We have to believe in our style of boxing. We can't go away from what we do best, and that's box."

Just box sounds easy enough. That's what Clay, Foreman and Frazier did back then.

Maybe it will be enough now and, more importantly, next year.

Columnist Milo F. Bryant can be reached at 636-0252 or milo.bryant@gazette.com. Check out Milo's blog, The Extra Milo, at http://milobryant.blogspot.com