2004 Olympics: Other Sports

Ward's light heavyweight gold provides much-needed lift for wobbled American team

12:05 AM CDT on Monday, August 30, 2004

By JEFF MILLER / The Dallas Morning News

ATHENS, Greece – Here's a U.S. boxing brainteaser after Andre Ward's victory in the light heavyweight final at the Athens Games on Sunday:

What's better – a gold and a bronze, or two silvers and two bronzes? In this subjective sport, let the armchair judging begin when comparing this year's output with that of Sydney four years ago.

Ward, 20, from Oakland, Calif., believes he did his part to bolster the beleaguered American amateur sport by charging ahead in the last half of his bout to defeat Belarus' Magomed Aripgadjiev, 20-13. The gold medal was the United States' first in Olympic boxing since 1996.

"It definitely lifted the spirits a little bit," Ward said. "I hope that in 2008, we start to be respected again like we used to be in '76, '88 and '84."

With Ward's gold and middleweight Andre Dirrell's bronze, the United States finished sixth in the boxing team standings. That's a drop of two medals and one slot from what was considered a disappointing performance in Sydney. Cuba again led in golds with five and medals with eight.

Ward struggled to get comfortable during the first two periods, then figured out his pace and used quick hands and feet to repeatedly score. Ward knocked down Aripgadjiev with a left hook midway through the third round. It was ruled a slip and not a knockdown, but Ward was in command from that point on.

After climbing onto the medal stand, he blew kisses to the crowd and then one last one toward the sky in memory of his deceased father. During the tournament, he has credited God with allowing him to defeat taller, heavier opponents.

"This was pre-ordained, since before I was born," Ward said.

Four of the seven American boxers who failed to win medals lost to medalists. One of them was 17-year-old light flyweight Rau'Shee Warren. He said Ward's counsel in Athens might convince him to try to qualify for Beijing rather than turn pro after one Olympiad, the U.S. norm.

"He said I could do it [win a medal] because I'm going to have a lot more experience," said Warren, this year's youngest U.S. boxer. "It's been stressing on my head. ... Maybe I'm looking forward to coming to China in 2008."

E-mail jmiller@dallasnews.com