Towards the end of the Tokyo Olympics, Australia’s equal best in terms of gold medals, then-Australian Institute of Sport director Peter Conde was asked about the success he had helped oversee. As a result of the pandemic, Conde was 8,000 kilometres away in Canberra; he had not travelled to Tokyo. But that gave him the distance and perspective to make an astute observation.
While all eyes were on the Dolphins’ golden form in the pool, a long-overdue gold medal for Jess Fox or success in newly-introduced sports like surfing and BMX freestyle, Conde pointed to a lone bronze medal in boxing, a sport first introduced to the Olympic program in 1904.
“Some really good signs from some of the aggregation that we’ve done with some of the combat sports,” he told Guardian Australia at the time. “Building a system to support a combination of taekwondo, judo and boxing. They’re all coming ahead – for boxing to have achieved a medal pretty quickly I think is outstanding.”
Three years on, that Tokyo bronze to the headline-grabbing Harry Garside has turned into two guaranteed bronze medals in Paris – and the possibility of even better, when Caitlin Parker and Charlie Senior take to the ring later this week. Talk of aggregation and systems might not get many sports fans on the edges of their seats. But Olympic sporting success is a long journey built on the back of careful processes, structures and people – and those changes are already paying off.
“Working with a number of those sports to dig deeply into their systems, refocus and refresh their strategies,” Conde said at the time. “And ultimately still on the system, starting to have really good investments in pathways.”
On Thursday evening, on centre court of the famed tennis venue Stade Roland Garros, Australia’s team captain Parker will fight Li Qian for a spot in the women’s middleweight gold medal match. By winning through to the semi-final last Sunday, Parker has guaranteed herself at least a bronze medal (boxing does not hold third-place fights, with both losing semi-finalists earning bronze). It will be Australia’s first medal in women’s boxing, after female bouts were added to the program at London 2012.
The historic nature of her achievement is not lost on Parker. “I can’t wait to call mum and dad and scream on the phone honestly,” she said following her quarter-final success. “It’s mind-blowing.”
Parker is not the only Australian flying the flag at this rarefied level. Just 30 minutes before Parker enters the ring on Thursday, compatriot Senior will have his own semi-final fight in the men’s featherweight, against Uzbekistan’s Abdumalik Khalokov.
Parker and Senior’s progress (plus strong performances from Teremoana Junior, and the trail-blazing Tina Rahimi, who has hit out at France’s hijab ban for local athletes) is historic. In the sport’s lengthy Olympic history, just six Australians have won boxing medals. Garside’s bronze in Tokyo snapped a 33-year medal drought for the program (he lost his first-round bout in Paris).
But 2024 marks only the second Olympics where Australia has achieved two medals in the same Games – the only other time was Rome 1960, with bronze medals to Olive Taylor in the bantamweight and Tony Madigan in the light heavyweight. But there’s another aspect of boxing history waiting to be made by Parker or Senior – Australia has never won an Olympic boxing gold medal.
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Could Paris be the moment that dry run comes to an end? Neither semi-final bout will be easy. Li will enter as favourite, having won a silver medal in Tokyo and bronze in Rio; she was also world champion in 2018. Senior’s opponent, Khalokov, will step into the ring with confidence after winning last year’s world championships on home soil in Tashkent.
Should either Australian reach the gold medal bout, the challenge will only continue. Senior would face Kyrgz boxer Munarbek Seiitbek Uulu or Cuban-born Bulgarian boxer Javier Ibáñez. The other side of Parker’s draw features Britain-based boxer Cindy Ngamba, representing the International Olympic Committee’s refugee team, and Panama’s two-time world championships medallist Atheyna Bylon. But 120 years after boxing was first on the Olympic program, the Australian duo are up for the fight.
“I’ve always believed that I can win the gold,” said Parker, who made her debut at the last Games. “I know what I’m capable of. I know I’m a sharp boxer, I’m smart and I know I can do it. I knew it for Tokyo but I just didn’t bring out my game. I would do whatever it takes to win that gold.”
Senior, fighting in honour of his late grandfather who passed away just before the boxer qualified for the Olympics, is also aiming high. “You come here for the final result, that gold medal, and you aim for that,” he said. “I am happy with a bronze, but I’m not leaving with it.”