"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. 

"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.