U.S. Olympic Men’s Boxing Team

The United States will be repesented by nine boxers in nine weight divisions in the Olympic boxing competition in Beijing. The team’s coach is Dan Campbell. The members of the team are:

Luis Yanez (Duncanville, Texas) – Light Flyweight, 106 lbs., age: 19. Yanez was the champion of the 2007 Pan American games, as well as a two-time national champion and twice a Golden Gloves national champ.

Rau’shee Warren (Cincinnati) – Flyweight, 112 lbs., age: 21. He was a 2007 world champion, three time national champion and an Olympian in the 2004 games (the first boxer since 1976 to compete in two Olympic games)

Gary Russell, Jr. (Washington D.C.) – Bantamweight, 119 lbs.; age: 20. Russell is a two-time national champion and in 2005 was both Golden Gloves champion and USA Boxing’s athlete of the year.

Raynell Williams (Cleveland) – Featherweight, 125 lbs.; age: 19. He was the 2007 national champion in his weight division.

Sadam Ali (Brooklyn, N,Y.) – Lightweight, 132 lbs.; age: 19. Ali was the lightweight national Golden Gloves champion in 2006 and 2007

Javier Molina (Commerce, Calif.) – Light welterweight, 141 lbs.; age: 18. Molina is the youngest member of the Olympic boxing team, and was 2007 national champion.

Demetrius Andrade (Providence, R.I.) – Welterweight, 152 lbs., age: 20. Andrade was last year’s world champion in the welterweight category, as well as a two-time national champion and Golden Gloves champion.

Shawn Estrada (East Los Angeles, Calif.) – Middleweight, 165 lbs.; age: 23

Deontay Wilder (Tuscaloosa, Ala.) – Heavyweight, 198 lbs.; age: 22. Wilder was national champion in 2007 in his weight division.

Controversy marked Luis Yanez’s berth on the team, as he had been removed from the roster in early July for skipping more than three weeks of workouts. He was given a reprieve on July 17 along with a fine, a required public apology to the coach and his teammates and sports counseling sessions.

Boxing became part of the Olympic games in 1904, but it was a part of the ancient Olympic games as well. If you want more information about boxing in the Olympics, read more at the Beijing games site, or at the official Olympics site.