boxer eliminated from olympic team
gary russell jr
qualifying weight
severe dehydration
two time bantamweight champion
young boxing athletes
US boxer eliminated from Olympics, 8 left for the team
@revellanotvanella (4033)
United States
August 8, 2008 10:25am CST
Gary Russell Jr. was announced to have been eliminated from the Olympic games fighters are being matched up today and boxing is set off tommorrow on Saturday.
This may come to the dismay of many because Gary Russell Jr. (trained by his father) is known for his many success, one being his 2004 title as Junior Olympic champion at nearly 15 years of age but also winning both US championship titles and GOLDEN GLOVES in 2005 at 16 years of age.
He has three brothers who also box and Gary began his career as a boxer in 1995.
The reason this comes as a disappointment is that the United States has not won a gold medal in the bantam weight division since Kennedy McKinney fought in 1988. Gary Russell Jr, already a two-time National Champion Bantamweight, has been saying that making it to the Olmpyics, now 20 years old, was all he cared about.
His discipline speaks otherwise as he was found unconscious in his dorm room ('Olympic Village') from severe dehydration. Five pounds over the required weight of 119 pounds, Russell Jr insisted that he could shed the weight and make weigh ins, unfortunately, even if it meant risking his own life. He had one pound left to shed before not heeding his coaches Dan Campbell's instruction that he needs to increase his fluids (contrary to the misguided belief that fluid 'adds weight').
Gary Russell Jr, from Capital Heights, Maryland, was promising opponent for the bantamweight division and scheduled to make his much talked about Olympic debut on Tuesday (Aug 12th). He was found unconscious by his roommate Luis Yanez.
His coach, Dan Campbell, said they became a little bit alarmed because Russell Jr. was not sweating like he should of been, a symptom of severe dehydration, but no word why they did not intervene then.
Lineup for the American team is:-Sadam Ali (lightweight)
-Demetrius Andrade (welterweight)
-Shawn Estrada (middleweight)
-Javier Molina (light welterweight)
-Rau'Shee Warren (flyweight)
-Deontay Wilder (heavyweight)
-Raynell Williams (featherwight)
-Luis Yanez (light flyweight)
Me, Im personally only interested in the Heavyweight and maybe the middleweight division but I was still upset that someone who says he wants the Olmpyics so bad would not keep his game on and try to skip corners, at the time of the Olmpyics!!Teddy Atlas shares the same feeling, [NBC boxing analyst Teddy Atlas: "It's the fighters - and the coaches' responsibility - to make sure they are on weight,....Plus USA Boxing started a residential program to better prepare its boxers and you would have expected that this type of situation would never have happened. Its embarrassing." "It's a disappointing start for USA Boxing, which always seems to have be filled with its share of turmoil,"
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