4 The Olympics is the greatest sporting event on Earth Every four years thousands of athletes known as Olympians spend their summer in one city There they compete against the very best in their sport hoping to win a highly-prized Olympic gold silver or bronze medal Ancient Olympics The ancient Greeks held games at Olympia from 776 BC for more than a thousand years At first they competed only in running events but after 708 BC wrestling matches were included and later a form of boxing Ancient Greek boxers could hit opponents when they were on the floor and wore leather thongs called himantes around their hands instead of gloves Going for Gold Hungarian fencer Aladar Gerevich won more gold medals than any other combat contestant at an Olympics He won a staggering seven gold medals between 1932 and 1960 Superstar Tajikistan’s Yusup Abdusalomov in red tries to throw Revazi Mindorashvili of Georgia during an Olympic freestyle wrestling match Mindorashvili won a gold medal
One-on-One Many sports grew as a result of soldiers training and practicing warfare skills from archery and javelin throwing to fencing boxing and wrestling All combat sports at the Olympics pit two opponents against each other in one-on-one competition For a long time these competitors were men but female wrestlers have competed in recent games In 2012 female boxers will take part for the first time A brutal mix of boxing and wrestling called pankration was first held at the ancient Greek Olympics in 648 BC A competitor called Sostratos of Sicyon had a reputation for breaking his opponent’s fingers until he surrendered Modern Games The games were revived when the first modern Olympic Games took place in the Greek city of Athens in 1896 Competitors wrestled and fenced at the first modern Olympics and other combat sports such as boxing judo and tae kwon do were introduced at later games Today tens of thousands of spectators visit the host city and nation while hundreds of millions watch on television 5 The 2008 Olympic light heavyweight boxing competition medal winners China’s Xiaoping Zhang second left won gold Ireland’s Kenny Egan left won silver and Tony Jeffries and Yerkebulan Shynaliyev both took bronze medals FEATS AND RECORDS The first woman to win an Olympic wrestling gold medal was Irini Merleni from the Ukraine in 2004
6 Boxing Qualifying for the Olympics Boxers qualify by winning major amateur championships around the world They compete in separate competitions depending on their weight There are 11 weight divisions for men’s Olympic boxing ranging from light flyweight for boxers under 106 lbs 48 kg to super heavyweights weighing more than 200 lbs 91 kg Countries send one boxer per weight division Boxing has been a popular sport at the Olympics since 1904 In 1912 the games were held in Stockholm and Swedish laws prevented boxers from competing Since then the best amateur boxers in the world have competed against each other at every Olympics The Cuban welterweight boxer Carlos Banteaux hits Silamu Hanati with a left jab at the 2008 games Banteaux won the bout and the judges scored the contest 17 4 FEATS AND RECORDS At the 1984 games in Los Angeles the U S became the first country to win nine boxing gold medals in a single Olympics Eight years earlier brothers Michael and Leon Spinks both won gold medals for the U S
Boxing Bouts At the Olympics the organizers draw boxers names at random pairing each one with an opponent from the same division The boxers then fight in bouts As the draw is random the two favorites for a gold medal could meet in the first round Each bout lasts eight minutes and is split into four rounds The winner moves on to the next match Eventually two boxers are left to fight in the final for the gold and silver medals The two losing semi-finalists both receive a bronze medal Clothing and Protection Boxers wear a singlet and shorts in red or blue and padded boxing gloves provided by the Olympic organizers Boxing is a tough sport and amateur boxers wear a padded head and cheek protector called a headguard a mouthguard to protect their teeth and a groin protector inside their shorts Ali Kazemi of Iran missed the athletes bus to the boxing arena during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics He rushed to the arena by taxi but forgot his headguard and boxing gloves so he was disqualified Ring and Corners The action takes place inside a 20 foot 6 1 m square ring with four ropes tied to corner posts The floor is made of canvas stretched over a soft underlay which slightly cushions a boxer’s fall Boxers each have a corner to which they return to rest for one minute between rounds There the coach gives them water and advice about the next round China’s Zhilei Zhang suffers a knockdown at the hands of Roberto Cammarelle from Italy Zhang lost this super heavyweight bout at the 2008 games when the referee stopped the contest in the fourth round 7
