By David Harazduk: Chaos and controversy characterised the boxing competitors on the 1924 Olympics in Paris, France. Biting, weeping, and rioting have been commonplace. A hometown favourite was disqualified, greatest pals fought within the featherweight ultimate, a sequence of information have been set, and the workforce competitors got here all the way down to the final combat.
The 1924 Olympics, which happened within the extraordinarily scorching Vélodrome d’Hiver, featured just a few guidelines that would appear weird to these watching this yr’s Video games. Boxers solely needed to weigh within the first day of the competitors. Referees stood outdoors of the ropes. Every nation might area as much as two boxers in every weight class.
100 and eighty-one boxers represented 27 international locations in eight weight lessons. If fortunate sufficient to advance to the finals, they fought from July 15 till July 20 with solely in the future off. France, Nice Britain, Italy and the US every despatched 16 fighters to compete, the utmost allowed. Three of the People have been members of the Los Angeles Athletic Membership. Flyweight Fidel LaBarba, and featherweights Jackie Fields and Joe Salas proudly represented the membership.
The primary controversy concerned one other American, bantamweight Joe Lazarus. After receiving a primary spherical bye, Lazarus confronted Sweden’s Oscar Andren on July 16. They engaged in a tactical stalemate within the first spherical. Between rounds, U.S. head coach Spike Webb suggested Lazarus to go for the knockout, apprehensive concerning the unhealthy judging that had ousted American heavyweight Eddie Eagen the day earlier than.
Lazarus cornered Andren after which unloaded a concussive proper that knocked out chilly his Swedish foe. From ringside, referee Maurice Siegel of France mistakenly believed there had been a clinch and that Lazarus had illegally landed the KO blow on the break. He immediately disqualified Lazarus.
Followers shortly moved from amazement on the knockout to bewilderment on the referee’s choice. After the announcer declared Andren the winner, followers chuckled, believing he had stated the improper identify. After they realized what had occurred, they threw their hats and any trash they might discover into the ring in disgust.
Again within the locker room, a woozy Andren and the Swedish officers have been sheepish about their obvious victory. Lazarus’s brother later recalled {that a} Swedish official instructed Joe, “We all know in addition to you do that you just scored a clear knockout.” If the People protested the choice, the Swedes would again them up. Referee Siegel additionally got here to grasp he had made a mistake and claimed he would admit fault within the occasion of a proper protest.
Colonel Robert Thompson, the president of the American Olympic Affiliation, refused to protest. “We’ll present the world that America loses simply as courageously as she wins,” he declared. Graciously, Lazarus accepted Thompson’s choice.
So Andren superior, however after profitable the subsequent day, he succumbed to American Salvadore Tripoli within the semifinals. Willie Smith of South Africa, who would win a portion of the bantamweight world championship three years later, beat Tripoli to win gold. Andren misplaced the bronze medal match to Jean Ces of France, who grabbed the host nation’s solely boxing medal.
Middleweight Roger Brousse of France beat Manuel Gallardo on July 17 to advance to the quarterfinals. French followers hoped their fellow countryman might proceed profitable, however his subsequent opponent was defending Olympic champion Harry Mallin of Nice Britain.
Mallin utterly outboxed Brousse the subsequent day and was shocked when the Frenchman was declared the winner. He turned to the referee to protest. Brousse had bitten him, he claimed, and Mallin had the chew marks on his chest to show it.
Mallin described his wounds as “a purple row of tooth marks and bruises.” He instructed the Belgian referee, “Look right here. Is that this what they name newbie boxing on this facet?” The referee ignored Mallin. It wasn’t till Swedish officers launched a protest on Mallin’s behalf that his case was thought-about.
As a part of the protest, Manuel Gallardo was additionally introduced in and the chew marks on his chest have been examined. French officers made the astonishingly hopeless argument that Brousse had a behavior of biting down when he threw a punch.
The choice to retroactively disqualify Brousse was made the subsequent day, so when French followers noticed Mallin enter the ring for his semifinal combat towards Belgium’s Joseph Beeken, the group grew to become irate. “They hooted and booed and created [a] normal uproar,” Mallin recalled. “There have been free fights, after which the French group created a storm by marching across the area carrying Brousse of their arms and shouting wildly the entire time.”
Mallin gained his combat towards Beeken and beat Jack Elliot, a fellow Londoner, within the ultimate to turn into the primary boxer ever to repeat as Olympic champion.
On July 17, referee Tommy Walker disqualified welterweight Giuseppe Oldani of Italy for excessively holding Canada’s Doug Lewis. Oldani then collapsed to the canvas bawling like a toddler. The Italian followers responded by firing random projectiles at Walker. After an hour, Walker was lastly in a position to go away, escorted out of the sector by a consortium of boxers for cover.
Three days later, Belgium’s Jean Delarge dominated the primary two rounds of the welterweight ultimate towards Hector Mendez of Argentina. Mendez got here again within the third and practically stopped Delarge. When Delarge was introduced because the victor, the Argentine partisans began combating Belgian followers for the subsequent fifteen minutes. The commotion overshadowed Harry Mallin’s win within the middleweight ultimate.
With 1920 gentle heavyweight gold medalist Eddie Eagen out within the first spherical, the 1924 heavyweight bracket opened up for 2 Scandinavians, Otto von Porat of Norway and reigning silver medalist Søren Petersen of Denmark. Eagen later gained gold within the bobsled to turn into the primary individual ever to win gold within the Summer season and Winter Video games in numerous occasions. Von Porat defeated Petersen within the finals to win Norway’s first and solely Olympic gold in boxing.
Denmark had a gold medalist of their very own in light-weight Hans Nielsen, who beat Argentina’s Alfredo Copello within the ultimate.
Within the featherweight division, People Jackie Fields and Joe Salas have been each in tears hugging one another within the dressing room minutes earlier than they have been about to battle within the ultimate. “We might have executed something to not combat one another,” Salas would later say.
Salas and Fields had educated collectively on the LAAC since 1921 and the 2 youngsters developed a detailed friendship. Salas had gained the nationwide championship in Could, so he was assured a spot within the Olympics, however Fields had been eradicated within the nationwide semifinals. Salas helped him prepare to defeat the 2 different American alternates at featherweight.
Each fighters beat 4 older foes to make it to the finals. “The European and South American fighters aren’t the equal of People in relation to boxing,” Salas defined. “They’re practically all highly effective sluggers, counting on their punching capacity, however in relation to infighting and the science of the sport, they’re pressured to take a again seat.”
The 16-year-old Fields took a detailed combat that included a four-minute third spherical to turn into the youngest gold medalist in Olympic boxing historical past, a file that also stands. By taking silver, Salas grew to become the primary Latino American to win an Olympic medal.
“After they began to play the nationwide anthem I bust out crying,” Fields remembered.
In 1924, boxing wasn’t simply a person assist. Nations accrued factors with every medal. The workforce title got here all the way down to the flyweight ultimate. The USA’ Fidel LaBarba confronted Nice Britain’s James McKenzie.
Since boxers weighed in earlier than the primary combat, there was an enormous discrepancy in weight. “I don’t understand how the hell he made the burden,” LaBarba recalled. “The man will need to have killed himself to make the burden… He in all probability was twenty kilos heavier than me when he fought me as a result of he was so goddamn large.”
LaBarba whipped the larger man to win gold and put the US excessive. In an Olympic boxing event stuffed with firsts, a yr later, he grew to become the primary ever Olympic gold medalist to win knowledgeable world championship.
Fidel LaBarba later described his feelings whereas listening to the nationwide anthem. “You cry,” he stated, “however you’re not ashamed to cry. You let the tears come down as a result of it’s out of your coronary heart.
“I’m the Olympic champion!”
