“Do not break the fate of the children following the dream”: Jones on the potential removal of Russia and the judicial scandal at the Olympic Games 1988

“If you want to punish someone - punish the guilty”

- On Monday, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will announce its decision and Russia can be removed from international competitions. If this happens, will it be a disaster for the country's sports?

- Of course, this is a disaster for sports. You deprive children of hope who have nothing to do with it. Just like at the 1988 Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), in fact, took my gold medal.

“What did you feel then?”

- I was 19 years old. Audiences from around the world saw that the organization made a mistake, and this was a blow to the reputation of Olympic boxing. Judge for yourself, you have deprived the guy of a medal, while no one cares, you are not even trying to improve the situation! You understand that you are wrong, but do not even lift a finger. But we are talking about the Olympic finals! Not about the semi-finals, not about the quarter-finals, not about qualifying fights - about the finals! A battle that decides the fate of gold and silver awards. This is a story.

- What should IOC representatives do?

- I do not ask to take away the gold medal from the opponent. But you know that I deserved to win. So why not reward me too. Let there be two Olympic champions this year. It was worth saying: “We have already awarded gold and are not going to deprive the winner of the award. But the result was a mistake, so we will give a gold medal to his opponent - he deserved it. ” So they would maintain a reputation for sports and people would admit that at least they corrected the mistake.

- What similarities does your situation have with the current situation in Russian sports?

- If you remove the entire team due to the mistakes of several athletes, this is unfair to the rest. In some disciplines, illegal drugs do not change anything at all. So why remove their representatives too? They have nothing to do with it. If you want to punish someone - punish the guilty, the sport in which there really were violations. Do not break the lives of children who simply follow their dreams, as it once was with me. They dream of performing at olympiads, at world championships, at other competitions. Out of love for sport and their country, they just want to go to the start under their own flag in the hope of taking first place and proving that their homeland is one of the best. You can not punish them.

“What could it lead to?”

- If you indiscriminately remove all athletes, then destroy the hopes of a huge number of people. Often there are words that young people are our future. But, forbidding the whole country to take part in competitions, you put an end to so many young athletes. And how then to believe your words about how much they mean to you?

- After the incident at the 1988 Olympics, you not only continued your career, but also won almost all possible awards and titles. How did that episode affect your development as a boxer and a person?

- To be honest, I will not say that I became a different person. But this story very seriously affected my professional career. I think God is omniscient and that was his way of showing me the way. It was God's will that pushed me to unleash my potential in the best way as professionally as possible. At the Olympics I was awarded the Val Barker Cup. After all, this meant that I was the best among amateurs, but I did not have a gold medal. How can you award the title of the strongest fighter in the Games, but not give gold? Something doesn't fit here!

- What happened then?

- I went into professionals. If this did not happen, I would not talk to you now, you understand. Although initially he was not going to and could just ruin his career. So all this affected my life, taught me to always be attentive to what I am doing professionally, and, possibly, made me a little more intelligent fighter, which otherwise I might not have become.

Many of my friends boxers could lose their 12th or 13th match, because it seemed to them that at first everything went like clockwork, and then luck suddenly changed and they lost. This would never have happened to me, since I was still angry because of that undeserved defeat in the Olympic finals.

“So that incident played a positive role in your life?”

- Yes. However, all these feelings were deeply embedded in me, because since childhood, since when I was watching the Olympics in 1976, I wanted to take part in the Games ...

• Roy Jones on the possible consequences of removing Russia from international competitions

"For the majority, this will be the collapse of all hopes."

- What future can these children expect if on Monday an unfavorable decision is made for Russia?

- Terrible, because many guys will lose their dreams. I don’t know how long the suspension may last, but for the majority this will be a collapse of all hopes. In the USA, when I was just starting, the Olympics was like a graduation from high school: every four years, amateurs had a kind of graduation. And everyone sought to get into these competitions. If you won, then you turned into professionals, and if not, you still switched, but losing your chance to win Olympic gold.

- For example?

- Mike Tyson was supposed to be the "graduate" of 1984, but he did not get to the Olympics, losing to Henry Tillman on points. At the same time, he became a professional boxer and defeated those who participated in it - Tyrell Biggs and the same Tillman, who played in the heavyweight and first heavy divisions, respectively. Since both categories are heavyweight in professionals, Tyson defeated both of them. But he missed his chance to perform in Los Angeles.

- How did this affect the careers of all three athletes?

- Mike was not adapted to Olympic boxing and was more suitable for a professional career. Tillman and Biggs just corresponded to the Olympic format, that's why they won there. But these victories remained the most striking achievement in their lives. But in professional sports, Tyson became a star, just putting an end to them. And they did not even think about it. Take away these medals, what will they have left?

- So, many young athletes may even be deprived of such an opportunity?

“Yes, that is what kills the most in all of history.” Many of them could have shone at the Olympics, but they would not necessarily have achieved success in professional sports, as happened with Tillman and Biggs, who were excellent lovers and reached the top of amateur boxing. After winning the Olympics, they became famous, but then Tyson derailed their professional career.

- Do not you think that if on Monday Russia is isolated from world sports, this can give it a good opportunity to develop locally?

- It is quite possible, and I really hope that it will be so. But even with this development of events, a number of problems can be identified. For example, now they are trying to combine amateur and professional boxing, and this is not a good combination. We are trying to do something with this, but in case of removal, the situation will only worsen, because the two worlds must be separated.

- Why?

“Another disaster may happen.” Not so long ago, the boxing world championship took place in Yekaterinburg, during which the American amateur, performing in the heavyweight division, was knocked out by a Russian who had previously held six professional fights and each won a similar victory. How did they even end up in the same ring? In the rest of the world, this is simply impossible.

Here you need caution. And if you approach this isolation from the wrong angle, it can only get worse. Professionals and amateurs should not fight each other. Certainly not at the competition level. They can spar in the gym, hold training matches, but not meet at official championships. An American amateur guy should never have to fight with a Russian professional guy, because they are representatives of two different worlds. One is for sport, the other is in order to feed the family. Who do you think will prevail?