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THE DIRTY SOCKS OF OLYMPIC BOXING, PART II: $20 000 FOR A RIO QUOTA
Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro will be remembered with one of the most controversial boxing tournament in the history of the five interlaced rings. For the first time seven of the most experienced referees/judges were expelled during the competition without further explanations. Those officials were known as The Magnificent Seven. They were extremely influential, because they were given huge authority to evaluate, train, mentor and select all the other referees and judges in elite Olympic boxing competitions.
Just before the eviction of The Magnificent the audience in Rio de Janeiro booed the result of the infamous heavyweight final (91 kg) between the Russian boxer Evgeny Tischenko and Kazakhstanian Vasily Levit and the following medal awarding ceremony in front of IOC president Thomas Bach. The most influential person in the sport probably was asking himself what the heck is going on with the Olympic boxing. If he just knew what had happened a year ago in Doha, Qatar during the World championships.