August 8th is a red letter day in the annals of Irish Olympic boxing.
Today marks the 30th anniversary of Michael Carruth’s Barcelona gold, the 30th anniversary of Wayne McCullough’s silver, the first anniversary of Kellie Harrington’s Tokyo gold and the 10th anniversary of Paddy Barnes London bronze.
Olympic games are traditionally staged at any point during the 6 week window from early July to late August, and finals are usually held across two days. Olympic results from all games since Athens, 1896, are available here
Ireland won two medals at the Barcelona Olympics, Gold on August 8th when welterweight Michael Carruth defeated Juan Hernandez Sierra:
- Round of 32: bye
- Round of 16: Defeated Mikaele Masoe (American Samoa) on points, 11-2
- Quarter-final: Defeated Andreas Otto (Germany) on points, 35-22
- Semi-final: Defeated Arkhom Chenglai (Thailand) on points, 11-4
- Final: Defeated Juan Hernández Sierra (Cuba) on points, 13-10
The second medal of the day, a silver went to Wayne McCullough, who battled battled against Hernandez Sierra’s countryman, Joel Casamayor:
- Defeated Fred Mutuweta – Points
- Defeated Ahmed Abbood – Points
- Defeated Mohammed Sabo – Points
- Defeated Gwang-Sik Li – Points
- Lost to Joel Casamayor – Points
Today also marks the first anniversary of Kellie Harrington’s Tokyo gold, which she claimed following a battle against Brazil’s Beatriz Ferreirra.
Round of 16 – defeated Rebecca Nicoli (Italy)
Quarter Final – defeated Imane Khelif (Algeria)
Semi Final – defeated Sudaport Seesondee (Thailand)
Final-defeated Beatriz Ferreirra (Brazil)
Paddy Barnes, on this day, became Ireland’s only boxing double Olympic medallist. He claimed his first bronze in Beijing in 2008, and his second at London 2012, contesting against Zou Shiming of China:
- Round of 16 – defeated Thomas Essomba
Cameroon 15–10 - Quarter final – defeated Devendro Singh
India 23–18 - Semi-final – lost to Zou Shiming
China 15–15 / 44–45 (CB)
Earlier this month, on August 2nd, Irish Boxing celebrated the 70th anniversary of the first Olympic medal. It was claimed by Belfast’s John McNally. He came to the bantamweight silver medal on August 2nd, 1952 at the Helsinki Games, by split decision in his final against home boxer, Pentti Hamalainen of Finland. His route to the final included unanimous decision wins over a Filipino boxer, an Italian boxer and a South Korean boxer.
The ’56 Games in Melbourne (4 medals), the ’92 Games in Barcelona (2 medals), the ’08 Games in Beijing (3 medals) the ’12 Games in London (4 medals) and the Tokyo Games ( 2 medals) are all notable in that Ireland came home with multiple medals
Boxing remains Ireland’s most successful Olympic sport, winning 18 of Ireland’s 35 medals at the Games – half of Ireland’s boxing Olympic medals have been won since the 2008 Games in Beijing.
Ireland’s Olympic Medal Winners:
John McNally, Silver, men’s bantamweight, 1952, Helsinki
Fred Tiedt: Silver, men’s welterweight, 1956, Melbourne
Tony Byrne: Bronze, men’s lightweight, 1956, Melbourne
John Caldwell: Bronze, men’s flyweight, 1956, Melbourne
Freddie Gilroy: Bronze, men’s bantamweight, 1956, Melbourne
Jim McCourt: Bronze, men’s lightweight, 1964, Tokyo
Hugh Russell: Bronze, men’s flyweight, 1980, Moscow
Michael Carruth: Gold, men’s welterweight, 1992, Barcelona
Wayne McCullough: Silver, men’s bantamweight, 1992, Barcelona
Kenny Egan: Silver, men’s light heavyweight, 2008, Beijing
Darren Sutherland: Bronze, men’s middleweight, 2008, Beijing
Paddy Barnes: Bronze, men’s light flyweight, 2008, Beijing; Bronze, men’s light flyweight, 2012, London
Katie Taylor: Gold, women’s lightweight, 2012, London
John Joe Nevin: Silver, men’s bantamweight, 2012, London
Michael Conlan: Bronze, men’s flyweight, 2012, London
Aidan Walsh: Bronze, men’s middleweight, 2021, Tokyo
Kellie Harrington: Gold, women’s lightweight, 2021, Tokyo