Recipients
| Val Barker Trophy | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | demonstration of excellence in Olympic boxing |
| Presented by | AIBA |
| First awarded | 1936 |
| Currently held by | Claressa Shields Hasanboy Dusmatov |
The Val Barker Trophy is presented every four years to the most "outstanding boxer" at the Olympic Games. [1] In theory, the award goes to the top "pound for pound" boxer in the Olympics. [1] The winner is selected by a committee of International Boxing Association (amateur) (AIBA) officials. [1] The trophy is named after British boxer Val Barker who won the Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABA) heavyweight title in 1891, [2] before becoming the secretary of the AIBA between 1926 and 1929. [1]
The inaugural recipient of the Val Barker Trophy was American flyweight Louis Laurie who won bronze at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. He is one of just three boxers who did not win gold at the same Olympics in which they were presented with the trophy, the others being Kenyan featherweight Philip Waruinge (bronze at the 1968 Games) and American light middleweight Roy Jones Jr. (silver at the 1988 Games). In the 2016 Games, two Val Barker Trophies were presented for the first time, one for men and one for women; [1] women's boxing made its Olympic debut at the previous Games in 2012. [3] The inaugural female winner was middleweight Claressa Shields who became the first American boxer to win two consecutive Olympic gold medals when she defeated Dutch boxer Nouchka Fontijn in Rio de Janeiro. [4]
American boxers lead with six trophies, followed by Kazakhstani boxers with three awards and Russian boxers with two awards (one for the Soviet Union and one for Russia).
Although women have participated in boxing for almost as long as the sport has existed, female fights have been effectively outlawed for most of boxing's history until recently, with athletic commissioners refusing to sanction or issue licenses to women boxers, and most nations officially banning the sport. Reports of women entering the ring go back to the 18th century.
Howard Edward Davis Jr. was an American professional boxer. Growing up on Long Island as the eldest of 10 children, Davis first learned boxing from his father. After being inspired by a movie about Muhammad Ali, Davis embarked on his amateur career. He won the 1976 Olympic gold medal one week after his mother died. He was also awarded the Val Barker Trophy at the Olympics, beating out such boxers as Sugar Ray Leonard, Michael Spinks and Leon Spinks.
Bakhtiyar Garifollauly Artayev is a Kazakh amateur boxer who won the gold medal for Kazakhstan at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He was also the winner of the Val Barker Trophy for the outstanding boxer of the 2004 Olympics. In recognition of his success, one of the Taraz sport centres was named after him. In 2012 he was appointed as a president of the Astana Presidential Sports Club.
Philip Waruinge was a Kenyan professional boxer, who competed in the featherweight division during his career as an amateur.
Serik Zhumangaliyevich Sapiyev is an amateur boxer from Kazakhstan who won the world title in the light welterweight (-64 kg) division in 2005 and 2007 and Olympic Gold 2012 at welterweight. He also won the Val Barker Trophy for best boxer at the London Olympic Games in 2012.
Mangte Chungneijang "Mary" Kom is an Indian Olympic boxer, politician, and former Member of Rajya Sabha. She is the only woman to win the World Amateur Boxing Championship six times, the only female boxer to have won a medal in each one of the first seven World Championships, and the only boxer to win eight World Championship medals. Nicknamed Magnificent Mary, she was the only Indian female boxer to have qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics, where she competed in the flyweight (51 kg) category and won a bronze medal. She had also been ranked as the world's No. 1 female light-flyweight by the International Boxing Association (amateur) (AIBA). She became the first Indian female boxer to win a gold medal in the Asian Games in 2014 at Incheon, South Korea and is the first Indian female boxer to win gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She is also the only boxer to become Asian Amateur Boxing Champion for a record six times. Mary Kom won the 51kg gold in President's Cup in Indonesia.
Vikas Krishan Yadav is an Indian boxer from Bhiwani district in Haryana, the hub of some of India's best boxers. He won a gold medal in the 2010 Asian Games in the Lightweight category and a gold medal in 75 kg weight category at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. He is one of the best boxers of India. He also boxed professionally.
Yenebier Adelina Guillén Benítez is a Dominican boxer who competes as a 75 kilogram middleweight, Pan American Champion and Female Boxer in 2013 and silver medal at the 2011 Pan American Games. She also won the gold medal at the 2008 Central American and Caribbean Championship, 2013 Bolivarian Games and 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games.
The women's middleweight boxing competition at the 2012 Olympic Games in London was held from 5 to 9 August at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre.
Claressa Maria Shields is an American professional boxer and professional mixed martial artist. She has held multiple world championships in five weight classes, including the undisputed female light middleweight title since March 2021; the World Boxing Organization (WBO) female light heavyweight title and the World Boxing Council (WBC) and World Boxing Federation (WBF) female heavyweight titles since July 2024; WBC and IBF female super middleweight titles from 2017 to 2018. Shields currently holds the record for becoming a two and three division world champion in the fewest professional fights. As of October 2022, she is ranked the world's best active female middleweight by BoxRec, as well as the best active female boxer, pound for pound, by ESPN and The Ring.
Marlen Esparza is an American professional boxer who is the former WBC, WBO, WBA and Ring female world flyweight champion. As an amateur, in 2012 she became the first American female boxer to qualify for the Olympics, in the first year that women's boxing was an Olympic event, going on to win a bronze medal in the women's flyweight division at the London Olympics. This made her the first American woman winner of any Olympic boxing medal.
Savannah Rose Marshall is a British professional boxer and professional mixed martial artist. She has held world championships in two weight classes: the undisputed and Ring magazine female super-middleweight title since 2023; and the World Boxing Organization (WBO) female middleweight title from 2020 to 2022. As an amateur, she became the first British female world champion after securing gold at the 2012 World Championships.
Daniyar Maratovich Yeleussinov is a Kazakh professional boxer who was the IBO welterweight champion in 2021. As an amateur he competed at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, winning a gold medal in 2016. He also won gold medals at the 2010 and 2014 Asian Games; the 2013 World Championships; and silver at the 2015 World Championships.
Nadezhda Viktorovna Torlopova is a Russian boxer. She is the 2010 AIBA World Champion.
Anthony Campbell is an amateur boxer from the United States.
Daniel (Danny) McFarlane is a former boxer turned British AIBA boxing referee, whose most high-profile bout saw Shakur Stevenson, take on Robeisy Ramirez (Cuba) in the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic bantamweight final.
Tori Jovan Nelson is an American professional boxer. She is a former three-weight world champion, having held the WBC female middleweight title in 2011: the WIBA middleweight title in 2012; the WIBA welterweight from 2013 to 2014; and the WIBA super middleweight title in 2016. As of September 2020, she is ranked as the third best active female middleweight by The Ring by BoxRec.
Tammara Thibeault is a Canadian boxer competing in the Middleweight category. Thibeault won the 2022 World Championship in Istanbul after earlier winning the middleweight bronze in 2019. She is the reigning Commonwealth Games champion when she won gold in Birmingham in 2022, improving on her bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Thibeault is also the current Pan American Games champion when she won gold at the 2023 Pan Am Games, again improving on her bronze from the 2019 Pan American Games.
The women's middleweight boxing event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place between 28 July and 8 August 2021 at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan. 17 boxers from 17 nations competed, Khadija El-Mardi from Morocco having withdrawn before the competition began.
Hellen Baleke is a Ugandan amateur boxer notable for being the first Ugandan woman to win a bronze medal in boxing at the 2019 All Africa Games.
