Sanford and Thibeault named to Canadian Olympic boxing team
Both represented Canada at Tokyo 2020.
Wyatt Sanford and Tammara Thibeault were named to the Canadian Olympic boxing team on Tuesday, ahead of Paris 2024 beginning later this month.
Both athletes qualified for Paris 2024 by winning their respective weight classes at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, and will be making their second Olympic appearances.
Thibeault, who competes in the women’s 75kg weight class, is the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, and was the gold medallist at the 2022 World Championships. She is also a two-time Pan American Boxing Championships winner, in 2022 and 2017, and won a silver medal at the Lima 2019 Pan Am Games in addition to her 2023 gold.
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, she won her round of 16 bout before being eliminated in the quarterfinals by eventual bronze medallist Nouchka Fontijn of the Netherlands.
“I haven’t quite accomplished what I want to yet at the Olympics”, said Thibeault in a press release. “Like a lot of things in life, things didn’t always go according to plan or as expected. With the pandemic, the preparations leading up to the Olympics in Tokyo were below par, especially because boxing is such a close-contact sport, so training was really impaired. So things didn’t pan out the way I wanted to, but that’s okay because I have another opportunity now!
“I’m very happy for all the successes I’ve had, but it’s all leading up to something for me. It’s all leading up to that final piece, the title of Olympic Champion. That’s what I’m going towards, and I know that I have to ground myself in the process of getting better every day.”
For the second consecutive Olympics, Sanford will be the only man on the Canadian boxing team, competing in the 63.5kg weight class. The 25-year-old from Kennetcook, Nova Scotia has been training full-time at Boxing Canada’s National Training Centre in Montreal since moving to the city in 2017.
Sanford won a bronze medal at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, and reached the round of 16 at the 2019 World Championships. He was also a bronze medallist at the 2022 Pan American Championships in addition to his aforementioned Pan American Games victory in Santiago. In Tokyo, Sanford was eliminated in the round of 32 after losing his first match.
“It’s me in the ring, but it’s for the whole community,” said Sanford in a press release. “Without my hometown, I wouldn’t be where I’m at and I always fight with them on my side.”
Canada has won 17 Olympic boxing medals since the 1920 Games in Antwerp. The most recent one was David Defiagbon’s silver in the men’s heavyweight at Atlanta 1996. No Canadian woman has won an Olympic boxing medal to date.
Boxing will take place from July 27 to August 10, with preliminary rounds at the North Paris Arena and finals at Roland Garros Stadium.
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