Why Australia’s big hitters are struggling to make an impact on Games

A tearful and clearly shell-shocked Tina Rahimi could not comprehend her loss to Poland’s Julia Szeremeta in the boxing 57kg class at the Paris Olympics, admitting: “I’m speechless. I walked in there really confident. I really, really saw myself standing on the podium … I’m in complete shock.”

There is a major difference between qualifying for the Paris Olympics by beating up boxers in the featherweight class from Tonga, the Solomon Islands and New Zealand, and fighting three rounds with crafty, competition-hardened Europeans.

In the final round, Szeremeta was ostentatiously dismissive of Rahimi. The Pole stood with her arms by her side, exposing her midriff; she danced and skipped and rested her hands on her hips. She jumped and performed little bicycle steps. In fact, she should have been penalised points for showboating. But it would have taken a massive mark-down to reduce a score where all five judges awarded her a clear victory, 30-27.

Rahimi said of the showboating, “We all get annoyed about that, when someone’s running away from the fight. I like to sit there and trade blows. So obviously, it got to my head, which I shouldn’t let it. But it was her tactic and good on her, it got her the win.”

Throughout the three rounds, Rahimi failed to land a telling punch.

Szeremeta has the full boxer’s arsenal, being part pugilist, part peacock. She can be back-alley fighter and Bolshoi dancer.

Tina Rahimi struggled to land a blow on Julia Szeremeta.Credit: Getty Images

Rahimi, wearing a hijab and full-length covering over her arms and legs in the hot Paris night, was busy but ineffective.

She is Australia’s first female Muslim boxer to compete at an Olympics and won a bronze medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

A make-up artist by training, she occasionally applies her skill to the faces of opponents she punishes, but in Paris there were only tears.

From Bankstown in Sydney’s south-west, she has been very outspoken about athletes being able to wear any clothing, irrespective of ethnicity or religion.

Asked about the gender issue regarding the IOC allowing two female athletes, including one in her division, to compete at these Olympics, despite the International Boxing Association barring them from last year’s world championships, she offered a possibly rehearsed response.

“I don’t know where the evidence is,” she said for the claims the two female boxers have X and Y chromosomes. “I think men should be competing in men’s sports and women participating in women’s sport. There’s been a lot of talk but no real evidence provided. I believe it is a massive toll on people’s mental health and, going into a major event like this, I think it is really unnecessary, unless there is proper facts to prove the case.”

The cries from the Aussie contingent in the crowd of “Come on Tina” were at odds with media questions seeking to establish if she is discriminated against for being Muslim.

The strong support for the women’s program by fans in Paris is also at odds with the strong possibility the sport will be dropped from the Olympic program for LA in 2028.

Imane Khelif battles Angela Carini.Credit: Getty Images

The absorbing thing about Olympic one-on-one contests, particularly boxing, is it reveals the fundamental fear of the athlete. More frightening than the actual blows meted out by the dominant boxer is the personal struggle against submitting. It is a motivation as much evident in female competitors as male. This was the background to the anguished response from the Italian boxer Angela Carini, when she abandoned her fight against Algeria’s Imane Khelif after 46 seconds. While it was widely reported she surrendered from an unexpected savage hit on the nose from an opponent caught up in a gender eligibility storm, she also confessed she was upset she could not continue the fight to honour her deceased father.

Women have boxed at the Olympics only since London 2012, and it would be a grave injustice if the sport was dropped from the LA Olympics because of “governance issues” by the male-run IBA, or incompetence by the IOC, which has taken charge of the event in Paris.

Ever since the refereeing larceny in LA in 1984, and the corruption by judges in Seoul, Olympic boxing has had the quality of held breath. Some would say bad breath, given the IOC’s initial reluctance to go near the IBA bosses. The IBA introduced computer scoring for the Barcelona Olympics but it didn’t stop judges hitting the key of their favoured fighter repeatedly, much like a chimpanzee coshing a typewriter. The IOC cut the IBA’s funding after the scorecard piracy I witnessed at the Athens Olympics of 2004. The decisions were so bad, it’s surprising no one called the police.

The IOC finally took control of the running of the sport at the Paris Olympics and now must decide whether to cull it ahead of the LA Games. But in Paris, the IOC blundered, allowing two female boxers with gender eligibility issues to compete, despite the IBA banning them.

Yet boxing’s most entertaining condition is instant chaos, as seen in Paris with the gender eligibility storm. And the media, which pays the IOC’s bills, loves chaos.

Controversy stalks Olympic events, particularly boxing. In LA in 1984, the best boxer of the 359 at the Olympics was future world professional champion Evander Holyfield. But he was eating a hot dog while the gold medallist won without fighting in the final. In the semi-finals, Holyfield met a Kiwi, Kevin Berry, and hit him with a flurry of punches just as the referee called stop. Berry went out because of a blow to the head and Holyfield was disqualified for hitting after the break. The referee was a Yugoslav and the winner of the other semi-final, also a Yugoslav. Then came the decision against another future world champion, Roy Jones jnr, in Seoul, a judgment in violent contempt of plausibility.

It’s the women who have given the sweet science a sugar hit at these Olympics, and the sport should not be discarded after decades of male corruption.

Que sera sere for Teremoana Teremoana

Australia’s super-heavyweight boxer Teremoana Teremoana jnr has clearly learnt the European phrase “que sera sera” while in Paris, explaining his loss to Uzbekistan’s Bakhodir Jalolov by repeatedly saying, “what will be, will be”.

While Campbelltown-born Teremoana clearly believes in predestination, his own belief in the outcome of the fight was at odds with what he described as God’s plan for him to lose.

“I thought I won the first and third rounds,” he said of his quarter-final defeat, despite only one of the five judges awarding him the first round, and none the third.

Only his most ardent supporters, including his family in the stands beside a boxing kangaroo flag, would have believed he won the fight.

His opponent was too evasive, meaning Teremoana failed to land his major weapon, a thunderous right hand. By the end of the fight, the Australian had revealed a striking inability to hit a moving target.

“You’ve got to take it into your own hands and be dominant,” he said in a rare moment of self-criticism. “And unfortunately, I thought I did but my saying going into the fight was whatever will be, will be. I guess it wasn’t my time to get a medal.”

Given the fact he was raised by his Cook Island father and came to his press conference with a necklace of white shells, it would be tempting to say he is a Cook Islander in his heart and an Australian by opportunity. However, that ignores the inclusive role sport plays, with many athletes in the so-called combat sports coming from parents born overseas.

“I’ve done my family proud,” Teremoana said. “I’ve done my country proud and made a little bit of history along the way. To me, an Australian is anyone who has come to Australia to live, and we all live in harmony and no matter what you are – Italian, Argentinian – in the end, we’re all Australian.

“I still believe I am the best in the world, and unfortunately, it’s not my day today. It’s his [Jalolov] day. I guess I’ll meet him in the pros.”

The braided-haired giant is not short of confidence, saying his opponent, “was running like a cat”, when the reality was he was using clever ring-craft.

Teremoana refused to become embroiled in the controversy over boxers in the women’s divisions, saying, “I don’t know what goes on behind the scenes. I didn’t know what corner I was in until 12 o’clock today.”

Only two of Australia’s contingent of 12 boxers remain in contention in a disappointing campaign, with 57kg Charlie Senior and 75kg team captain Caitlin Parker still in the tournament.