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Mike Coppinger, ESPN Boxing Insider
The USA Olympic boxing team will face the same daunting task that has eluded the squad in each of the last four Olympic Games: a gold medal on the men’s side.
Andre Ward is the last American man to capture Olympic gold, doing so at the 2004 Games in Athens. Ward went on to enjoy a Hall of Fame career in the pros.
Jahmal Harvey is widely regarded as the best hope to end that 20-year Olympic gold medal drought. The 21-year-old featherweight — along with the rest of the four-member men’s and women’s boxing teams — are in Paris for the commencement of the 2024 Summer Olympics on Friday.
“It’s very important to me just to bring the morale back to the U.S.,” Harvey told ESPN. “We haven’t won a gold medal in 20 years, so just to get that done and bring all the excitement, get some attention back on USA boxing and just to have little kids see you do it just to make ’em work harder and believe in themself that they can do it.
“And it is bigger than me really. Even if I don’t do it, I’m glad to be a part of a team where my other teammates can do it and that I was along the ride to push them.”
Before the team embarked on Paris, two-division undisputed champion Claressa Shields visited the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and gave the team a pep talk. Shields knows what to expect: she’s the only American boxer to win a gold medal since Ward, doing so twice (2012 and 2016).
“The best advice that I gave them was to remove any doubt and believe 110% in yourself,” Shields, who challenges Vanessa Joanisse for a heavyweight title Saturday in Detroit, told ESPN on Wednesday. She also screened her upcoming biopic, “The Fire Inside,” for the team.
“Believe in your training, believe in your hard work, believe in your sacrifice, and go over there every fight and put it on the line,” Shields said. “Fight every fight like it’s the gold-medal match. That’s how you get to the gold medal.”
Here’s a look at the eight boxers who will look to bring gold home to the United States:
Men:
Jahmal Harvey – Featherweight (125 pounds)
Harvey is the first American since 2007 to win gold at the amateur World Championships.
His first Olympic match is on July 31 against Brazil’s Luiz Gabriel Oliveria. Harvey picked up boxing after he played in the same 7-on-7 football league with this year’s No. 1 overall NFL draft pick Caleb Williams in Maryland. Their youth football coach, Darrell Davis, started a boxing gym and it led to Harvey swapping shoulder pads for boxing gloves.
Like three-division champion Terence Crawford, Harvey is a switch-hitter who can box from both the orthodox and southpaw stances.
Joshua Edwards – Super heavyweight (203+ pounds)
Edwards, 24, is the first super heavyweight Olympian from Houston since George Foreman, who won a gold medal at the 1968 Games in Mexico City.
At 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, Edwards will often be the smaller man inside the ropes in Paris. He suffered a decision loss to the 2020 gold medalist, Uzbekistan pro boxer Bakhodir Jalolov (one of many professional boxers participating at the Paris Olympics), in March 2023. Edwards rebounded two months later with a decision win over England’s Delicious Orie, one of the gold-medal favorites.
Edwards captured a gold medal at the 2023 Pan American Games. His first Olympic matchup is July 29 against Italy’s Diego Lenzi. Tyrell Biggs is the last American super heavyweight to win an Olympic gold medal (1984).
Omari Jones – Welterweight (156 pounds)
Jones, 21, from Orlando, Florida, is an avid golfer who started boxing at age 8 after transitioning from karate. He’s also currently enrolled in a business program at Valencia College.
Jones won gold at the 2023 Gee Bee International Tournament and the 2023 Czech Republic Grand Prix. Team USA coach Billy Walsh calls Jones “a very polished and classy boxer.”
Roscoe Hill – Flyweight (112 pounds)
Hill, 29, the oldest member on the eight-person squad, began his boxing training at Foreman’s gym in Houston. Hill’s father was a boxer who trained with Foreman under the guidance of Hall of Famer Archie Moore.
“I’d seen the things [Foreman] was doing around us in the gym and how he helped younger kids,” Hill told the official website of the Olympics. “And I thought, ‘I want to do the things that George Foreman is doing.'”
Hill won a silver medal at the 2021 AIBA World Championships.
Women:
Jennifer Lozano – Flyweight (110 pounds)
“La Traviesa” is the first Olympic boxer ever from Laredo, Texas. She began boxing to develop self defense to combat bullying. Lozano, 21, split time during her formative years between Texas and Mexico.
Walsh called Lozano a “battler … who has plenty of heart and power.” She qualified for the Olympics following a second-place finish at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
Morelle McCane – Welterweight (146 pounds)
McCane, 29, is the first Olympic women’s boxer from Cleveland. She served as an Olympic alternate in 2021.
Following her first amateur boxing match, McCane’s brother died, which led to her taking a hiatus from the ring. She owns two National Golden Gloves gold medals.
Jajaira Gonzalez – Lightweight (132 pounds)
Following a second-place finish in the 2016 Olympic Trials, Gonzalez, 27, from Montclair, California, took a three-year hiatus from boxing to address her mental health. She returned in 2021 and qualified for the Olympics after she finished third at the 2023 Pan American Games.
Gonzalez is the younger sister of featherweight pro boxer Joet Gonzalez, who challenged for a world title on three occasions, most recently in September vs. Luis Alberto Lopez.
Walsh called Gonzalez “the engine of the team.”
Alyssa Mendoza – Featherweight (125 pounds)
Mendoza, 20, from Caldwell, Idaho, is the youngest member of Team USA. She’s coached by her father, JR, who runs a boxing gym in Idaho. Mendoza started training at age 12 and her goal is to put Idaho on the boxing map.
Mendoza is a southpaw and is nicknamed “The Wrecking Machine.” She owns 38 wins in 49 recorded amateur fights.
Source: www.espn.com