Jahmal Harvey is seen as Team USA’s best hope at a gold medal in Paris.
Boxing’s place at the Olympics has been in jeopardy for years now, but the sport has kept its spot for at least one more cycle, and men and women from around the world will lace up the gloves and look to bring medals home from Paris, with fights starting on July 27 and wrapping up on Aug. 10.
The men’s side of the competition will feature seven weight classes, while the women expand to six divisions for the first time, having first joined the Olympics with just three classes at London 2012.
Men will compete at flyweight (51kg), featherweight (57kg), lightweight (63.5kg), welterweight (71kg), middleweight (80kg), heavyweight (92kg), and super heavyweight (92+kg). Women will be boxing at flyweight (50kg), bantamweight (54kg), featherweight (57kg), lightweight (60kg), welterweight (66kg), and middleweight (75kg).
Historically, the United States is an Olympic boxing powerhouse, having won more medals in the sport than any other nation, and by a significant margin. Since 1904, the Americans have won 117 medals, with Cuba in second place at 78, and Great Britain in third with 62.
But recent years have not been kind to the Team USA boxing program. No male boxer has won a gold medal for the country since Andre Ward in 2004. In 2008, the Americans won just one medal, a bronze by Deontay Wilder, and in 2012, the men won zero medals, with gold for Claressa Shields and bronze for Marlen Esparza on the brand new women’s side.
2016 saw Shields repeat with a second gold, and the men got back on the podium with Shakur Stevenson winning a silver medal and Nico Hernandez a bronze. In Tokyo, Richard Torrez, Keyshawn Davis, and Duke Ragan all won silver, making for the most successful American men’s team in nearly two decades while still falling short of a gold, and Oshae Jones won bronze on the women’s side.
Featherweight Jahmal Harvey is seen as the nation’s best hope at its first men’s gold medal since Ward in Athens, when the 21-year-old Harvey was still a bit shy of his second birthday. He won gold at the 2021 World Championships and another gold at the 2023 Pan American Games.
Roscoe Hill (flyweight), Omari Jones (welterweight), and Joshua Edwards (super heavyweight) will also compete in the men’s tournaments. Edwards won gold at the Pan American Games, too, but he’s in a division with a massive and clear favorite in Uzbekistan’s Bakhodir Jalolov, who won gold in Tokyo.
On the women’s side, Team USA sends Jennifer Lozano (flyweight), Alyssa Mendoza (featherweight), Jajaira Gonzalez (lightweight), and Morelle McCane (welterweight).
Two Cubans – Arlen Lopez and Julio Cesar La Cruz – will look to join elite company as they each chase a third Olympic gold medal, which has only been done three times in Olympic boxing history. The Cubans didn’t have their best showing at the Pan American Games, but their five-fighter squad is still pretty strong.
The aforementioned Bakhodir Jalolov of Uzbekistan is back at the Olympics, which does allow those with pro experience to compete. Jalolov is 14-0 (14 KO) as a professional and dominated the field in Tokyo a few years ago, which is what is expected of him again in Paris. He has said this could be his final Olympics, even if boxing maintains its place at Los Angeles 2028 and beyond.
Kazakhstan’s Kamshybek Kunkabayev, who won a bronze in Tokyo, may be Jalolov’s top threat, but there is intriguing potential in Australia’s Teremoana Junior and Great Britain’s Delicious Orie, too.
Two top amateurs looking to repeat as gold medalists on the women’s side are Turkey’s Busenaz Sürmeneli and Ireland’s Kellie Harrington.
Harrington has been compared, for obvious reasons, to countrywoman and living legend Katie Taylor, but she did just suffer her first defeat in three years back in April, dropping a decision to Serbia’s Natalia Shadrina.
Sürmeneli was dominant in Tokyo and most expect her to repeat without much trouble. She seems to have no interest in turning pro, and if she continues to fight as well as she has been, expect to see her back at the Olympics in Los Angeles, if boxing is still an Olympic sport.
