Before the Paris 2024 Olympic boxing tournament got underway, Caitlin Parker was asked how important it was for women's boxing to still have a place in the Games.
Parker, captain of the largest boxing team Australia had ever sent to a Games was unequivocal.
"It has been just such a massive part of my life, the Olympics," she said.
Loading..."I've been always been so obsessed about it.
"And it just, it kind of makes me so sad to think that some kids that look up to us, or kids that are starting this sport that have the same kind of dream, that's going to be shattered for them.
"That absolutely guts me. And especially women.
"You know, we're just starting to create history in this sport."
Parker has certainly done her bit to make history.
Already Australia's first female boxing medallist before she stepped into the ring with China's Li Qian, Parker put up a valiant display to push Li all the way and come up just short.
Parker had great success with her leading left and with some neat, sharp counter shots in the first two rounds, but the first two rounds were shared.
Li tried to turn the fight into a wrestle throughout the second round and into the third, but did just enough to claim victory on the judges scorecards.
Bloodied from the nose, Parker had given her all, matching the effort of her young 57kg teammate.
UK-born featherweight Charlie Senior, who has lived in Perth since he was two years old, was up against Uzbek boxer Abdumalik Khalokov for a spot in the gold medal fight.
Khalokov is the number one seed, and looked it, showing his speed from the off to stay out of the range of Senior's flashing hands.
Senior was better in the second round, but could only convince one of the five judged to award him the round, meaning he needed a miracle in the third to advance.
Nevertheless, the 22-year-old gave a tremendous account of himself to become just the seventh man from Australia to win an Olympic boxing medal.
"I thought it was a close fight," Senior said.
"It was a quality bout and everyone got some joy out of it. It wasn't the result I wanted but if I can go out there and put on a show for the fans, I'm happy to do so.
"It's hard to say if I could have done things different.
"When he's punching you in the face it's a bit hard to switch up quickly.
"But I've come here and done things people dream of. I've got a medal for the tally.
"I can count on both hands how many boxing medals Australia has, so to contribute to that is great. It's not gold, but there's always next time."
No doubt disappointed with the result, Senior didn't show it, completing a synchronised backflip in the ring with Khalokov following the decision.
"I go out there to put on a show," Senior said.
Prior to this year's Games, Australia had won just five Olympic medals in boxing, four of them bronze and one silver, with Reginald 'Snowy' Baker adding another silver as part of the Australasian team of 1908.
Only once before has Australia won two medals at a single Games, at Rome in 1960.
There, bantamweight Oliver Taylor and light heavyweight Tony Madigan both claimed bronze medals, with Madigan losing his semifinal to a young, brash American from Kentucky named Cassius Clay.
Paris saw Australia take its largest and most diverse team in history to a Games, a dozen boxers from the length and breadth of the country.
Sitting in the palatial surrounds of Court Philippe Chatrier, it's almost hard to believe that boxing is in such dire straits when it comes to its position within the Olympics.
But then you remember.
The all-too-often baffling, controversial decisions. The history of corruption that saw the International Boxing Association (IBA) banned from organising the competition in Tokyo and here in Paris.
The IOC said earlier this week that unless a new governing body can be found, the sport will be absent at the Olympics in Los Angeles, the first time boxing will not have appeared at a Games since 1912.
The most recent controversy the sport have seen itself embroiled in is the case of Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting, banned by the IBA but reinstated by the IOC to fight at these Games.
The IBA held a press conference last week which it said would provide evidence of why it had banned the boxers, but only served to highlight its own incompetence.
It's just the latest example of the sport's frustratingly innate ability to embarrass itself on a near monthly basis, making a mockery of the sacrifice and endeavour every athlete has to go through to make it to this level.
Some of the decisions at this Games have been baffling, not least in the fight following Senior's, when Munarbek Seitbek Uulu was awarded victory over Javier Ibáñez, leading to booing inside the arena.
The harsh reality is that for every step forward there is a stumble backwards, the sport sadly falling toward irrelevance and extinction.
The existential threat boxing as an Olympic sport faces is heartbreaking for so many fighters.
Harry Garside, who claimed a drought-breaking bronze medal for Australia in Tokyo, said it was "absolutely terrifying" to think that boxing may be removed from the Games and issued a heartfelt plea.
"Boxing is historically a poor man's sport … it's the countries that come from these really rough areas in the world, they're the ones that come and win gold medals," Garside said at the start of these Games.
"And I think, to take that away from people like that, is a crime and I would hate to see it.
"Boxing deserves to be in the Olympics. It has saved many people's life, and I have seen it save many people's lives."
And at Roland-Garros the power of boxing was in full evidence.
Cindy Ngamba, the 25-year-old flag bearer for the Refugee Olympic Team, was the darling of Court Philippe Chatrier — until flyweight Billal Bennama walked out for his gold medal match, that is.
The whole crowd chanted her name as she fought in the 75kg division for the Olympic Refugee Team, despite her coming out on the wrong side of the result.
Ngamba was born in Cameroon but, while waiting for her UK citizenship to be granted was at risk of being deported back to Africa, where she felt threatened based on her sexuality.
After being granted refugee status, she was awarded a Refugee Athlete Scholarship by the IOC and is now living her dream, becoming the first refugee team member to win a medal at the Games.
These are the stories that boxing wants to be telling, the stories that boxing can offer that few others can.
That is what will be missed in LA, unless this frustrating sport can get its act together before it's too late.
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