Ukraine's Oleksandr Khyzhniak defeated Nurbek Oralbay of Kazakhstan 3:2 in the Olympic boxing middleweight final, claiming his first-ever gold.
In a close bout, Khyzhniak outboxed his opponent in two out of the three rounds, according to three out of five judges.
On his way to his second career Olympic final, Khyzhniak, coached by his father Oleksandr, has been out of the boxing ring for almost a year and underwent surgery, but he still remained the clear favorite to win in Paris.
After an unfortunate defeat three years prior, during the Tokyo Olympics final, the 29-year-old Ukrainian boxer decided to make another Olympic run to join the exclusive club of Ukrainian Olympic champions, including Wladimir Klitschko, Oleksandr Usyk, and Vasyl Lomachenko, all of whom followed to have an acclaimed professional career.
Kateryna Hodunova
Tokyo fall
Khyzhniak approached the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 as the absolute leader in the 75 kg weight class. In preparation for the competition, he had 62 matches and did not lose one. However, the outcome of the Olympic final was decided by a single lucky punch.
Khyzhniak led on the scorecards against Brazilian Hebert Conceicao until the third round, when he missed a counterpunch and was knocked out.
"I got up right away. I cannot say that I could not continue the fight. In 4-5 seconds, I recovered and felt good," Khyzhniak told Suspilne after the defeat in Tokyo.
But the referee decided that the Ukrainian boxer could not continue the fight due to his health condition and gave the victory to Conceicao.
"Our goal was to win gold at the Olympic Games. This goal was not achieved. We probably need to go this path again and make this (silver) medal gold," Khyzhniak said.
Strenuous path to gold
After his success in Tokyo, Conceicao immediately moved on to professional boxing – with bigger fees and titles – while Khyzhniak began training for his second Olympics in a new weight class – 80 kg.
Before the Tokyo Olympics, Khyzhniak had a lot of practice, but before going to Paris, the Ukrainian had almost none.
In 2021, the coaching staff decided that he would not compete in the World Championships, and with the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian team was forced to skip almost all major competitions organized by the International Boxing Association (IBA).
The IBA, which is not recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and is headed by Russian Umar Kremlev, allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their national flags. The IBA was the only international Olympic sports federation to take this step. As a result, Ukrainian athletes missed competitions under its patronage.
In July 2023, Khyzhniak won the European Games in Krakow, Poland, his first major international victory after the Olympics.
In January of the following year, the leader of the Ukrainian national team had undergone surgery on his left arm about six months before the start of the Olympic Games. Before leaving for Paris, the Ukrainian had not had a single fight and returned to training with the team only in May.
At the Olympics in Paris, Khyzhniak was one of the oldest competitors in his weight class. Only two of the Ukrainian's 18 rivals are older than him – 36-year-old Egyptian Abdelgawwad Abdelrahman and two-time Olympic champion Arlen Lopez from Cuba, who is 31.
Khyzhniak defeated Lopez by a split decision in the semifinal in what became the Ukrainian fighter's toughest bout at the tournament. Prior to that, the Ukrainian boxer also knocked out Brazilian Wanderley Pereira and Pylyp Akilov, a Hungarian boxer of Ukrainian descent.
Olena Goncharova
Among the greats
After the London 2012 Olympic Games, when Lomachenko became a two-time Olympic champion and Usyk won his first gold medal, both boxers ended their amateur careers. Soon, they became among the greatest professional boxers of their generation.
Making his professional debut in 2013, Lomachenko became the world featherweight champion (57.2 kg) in his third fight, an achievement unseen for the past 40 years. After that, he moved up in weight classes, setting two records for the fastest time to win a championship title.
It took Lomachenko 12 fights to become a world champion in three weight categories, a record time.
In 2018, Usyk became the absolute cruiserweight world champion and the first and only Ukrainian to win the Muhammad Ali Cup. The following year, he moved up to heavyweight and, in three fights, repeated the Klitschko brothers' achievement, becoming the WBA, WBO, IBF, and IBO heavyweight champion.
After defeating British boxer Tyson Fury in 2024, who held the IBF belt, Usyk became the absolute world champion in the heavyweight class. Only two boxers had ever become absolute world champions in different weight categories before Usyk.
But Khyzhniak is unlikely planning to turn professional at the age of 29.
On the eve of the Olympic Games, the head coach of the national team, Dmytro Sosnovsky, said in an interview with the YouTube channel Tyke Mason that Khyzhniak isn't planning on going pro. The two discussed the possibility of Khyzhniak participating in his third Olympics in 2028.
Yet, it is even unclear whether boxing will be included in the next Olympic Games. The Russian-controlled International Boxing Association (IBA) is banned from the Olympic movement, meaning the sport is not included in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics program so far.
Kateryna Hodunova
