The 2024 Paris Olympics has been mired in controversies since its opening ceremony. The judges’ scorecard for boxing fights is one of the issues that has drawn a lot of criticism. Rosie Eccles of Great Britain was eliminated from the competition with a split decision loss to Polish fighter Aneta Rygielska. Many felt that Eccles was the obvious winner and that the scorecards needed to be reevaluated. USA Boxing Team’s assistant coach Christine Lopez shed some light on the subject during an exclusive interview with EssentiallySports. 

The North Paris Arena crowd was incensed by the unfair verdict following Eccles’ split decision loss. Several athletes and fans showed their support for the Welsh fighter. Despite that, her Olympic dream was destroyed since the damage had already been done and the support could not keep her from being eliminated. Team USA boxer Omari Jones’ recent 3-2 loss by split decision to Uzbekistan’s Asadkhuja Muydinkhujaev in the semifinal is also being questioned by many. So much so, that the mental coach of Team USA Boxing, Jake Paul, deemed the decision by judges as “absolute robbery”.   

Speaking on the issue with us a day before Omari Jones’ controversial loss to the Uzbek finalist, Christine Lopez said, “Yeah there have been some controversial decisions. Absolutely! You know one with GB’s Rosie Eccles. I talked to Rosie after and she was obviously very distraught. You know she is such a beautiful soul, such a great fighter.” Lopez went on to reveal that she had met Eccles numerous times at the camp and thought the athlete was absolutely amazing. Eccles was feeling awful not just for herself but also for her coaches and all the other people involved, who had sacrificed numerous hours and the entirety of their effort just to witness the win slipping by.

Lopez further added, “You know the sacrifices that everybody makes besides the athlete. You know the athlete definitely leads a very sacrificial life for to be just taken from her. And the same with Roscoe Hill, you know, we definitely saw things differently in both those fights. At the end of the day, judges are human, they have their own opinions and their own feelings or things that they see or don’t see, and that’s really all that it is. I don’t know what else to say.”

Furthermore, American boxer Roscoe Hill had been eliminated after a split decision loss to Frenchman Billal Bennama. Even this decision had raised eyebrows about the judges’ scorecards. The round-of-16 flyweight fight ended with Bennama narrowly winning 3-2. A lot of boxing fans and commentators thought that Hill had won the second and third rounds, which were also not scored in his favor.

Christine Lopez underlines the sacrifices of being an athlete

Nearly a month before the Olympics, Gennady Golovkin, the President of Kazakhstan’s Olympic committee and a former world champion, was present at a competition in Milan. He saw the technological advancements there and remarked that AI, computerized scorekeeping, and review systems would lessen corruption in sports. While being asked about the recurrent issues with the scoring, Lopez replied, “I think until we get to AI you know, we get the human emotion out of the judging, we’re gonna have times like this. And it is a travesty, it really is.”

The American coach also mentioned how an athlete has to miss out on birthdays, weddings, holidays, and even the deaths of loved ones. She said that “the long months away from home, the grueling hours of training and mental and physical things that these athletes go through and for just to be taken away like that is, it’s just heartwrenching. You can’t help but be emotional when you see these things happen.”

Meanwhile, what do you think about the scorecards of Eccles, Hill, and Jones? Furthermore, what do you think of Coach Lopez’s remarks on the subject? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.