The Long Shadow of Seoul 1988
AI-generated image · US National Wire
Decades after one of boxing's most controversial Olympic decisions, a personal gesture highlights the failure of official governing bodies to rectify judging scandals.
In 1988, a gold medal match between Roy Jones Jr. and Park Si-Hun ended in a 3-2 decision for Park, despite Jones landing 86 punches to Park's 32. As Yahoo Sports first reported, the result remains one of the most controversial in Olympic boxing history, sparking widespread speculation regarding the involvement of the South Korean government or bribery.
The fallout led to the lifetime banning of judges Hiduad Larbi of Morocco and Alberto Duran of Uruguay. A third judge, Bob Kasule of Uganda, who awarded the gold to Park based on "aggressiveness," received a six-month suspension. According to Yahoo Sports, Larbi allegedly told reporters he voted for Park to avoid embarrassing the host nation, believing other judges would easily favor the American.
While the U.S. Olympic committee and the international amateur boxing governing body, AIBA, hoped the International Olympic Committee would officially right the wrong, no such action occurred. Instead, the burden of the controversy lasted 35 years. Park, who never fought again after the Games and worked as a physical education teacher, traveled to Pensacola, Florida, on May 30, 2023, to personally return the gold medal to Jones.
Jones, a Hall of Fame boxer who later won world titles in four weight classes, told Yahoo Sports he was "blown away" by the unselfish act. Despite his professional success and receiving the Val Barker Trophy as the 1988 Games' best boxer, Jones noted that the anguish of the loss lingered for many years.