Lewis Richardson guarantees himself a medal as odds were stacked against him

By Tom Harle at North Paris Arena

The odds were stacked against Lewis Richardson winning an Olympic medal.

Just after joining the vaunted GB Boxing programme in 2018, he was diagnosed with three stress fractures in his back.

Richardson narrowly missed out on Tokyo and then found himself caught in the schism at the heart of amateur boxing. He even had to drop down a weight category when his was removed from the Games.

Once the Essex scrapper got to Paris, he saw five of his team-mates exit acrimoniously and became the only man able to prevent a Team GB boxing whitewash.

“I didn’t massively feel the pressure, but I was aware the expectation was on me from the nation from a boxing perspective,” said Richardson.

“I believe all the injuries and setbacks, the uncontrollable factors that have changed the goalposts, has made me a stronger person mentally and physically.

“The experience I’ve gained from situations and experiences have allowed me to perform on the biggest stage in the world and do it very well.”

Richardson fought through the storm and beat fierce Jordanian Zeyad Eashash to guarantee at least a bronze medal.

It ensures Team GB have won a boxing medal at the last seven Olympics, a run stretching back to Sydney 2000 and the advent of National Lottery funding.

Richardson was the last British boxer to compete in Paris and after a number of controversial decisions against his team-mates, he averted a clean sweep of first-round exits with an assured split-decision win over Serbia’s former European champion Vakhid Abbasov.

In the quarter-final he leant all of his tactical nous and rapier-sharp movement to neutralise the threat of Eashash, whose ugly style has caused plenty of problems for opponents.

Richardson leant on lessons learned from pre-Tokyo exposure to World and European Championship-level competition, events that GB have not participated in in recent years.

“There have been difficulties and it has been a shortened cycle,” he said.

“Myself and a couple of other members of the squad have had experience from the previous cycle. In terms of setbacks, that has been part of it because we’ve been limited in competition and the tournaments we’ve gone to.”

Richardson has a very tough-looking semi-final in store at Roland Garros on Tuesday night.

He faces Mexican second seed Marco Alonso Verde Alvarez, who is the Pan American Games champion and beat legendary Cuban Roniel Iglesias in a pro fight in April.

But for now, Richardson can revel in an Olympic medal earned against the odds.

“These are special moments in my life and my family’s lives,” he said.

“I’m an Olympic medallist for life and now it’s time to change that colour.”

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