Question about Olympic alternates....

[generic screen name]

I heard of Olympic alternates and I was wondering what exactly is an alternate??? How do they get to fight? Was there any alternates in history that actually fought and well?

All I know that Mike Tyson, Aaron Pryor, and I think one of the Peterson brothers were alternates.....

[babyhuey]

i had a friend who was the alternate for arthur johnson on the 88 team
he got to travel with the team and if anything would have happened
prior to the olympics, he would have took arthurs place
he dident get his chance but he was there, told some great stories,
was there for the bowe breakdown before the lennox fight,
and had some great pics
i have been told the alternates today dont get the same perks

[boxmel]

There are no true Olympic alternates. Once you have made the Olympic team, there is no replacement. It is the boxer who qualifies for the Olympics, not the weight class. The U.S. does take elite boxers for training and sparring with the Olympic boxers but they would not replace an Olympic boxer if he couldn't compete.

[babyhuey]

mel when did they change it, after the 88 games,..???
my friend was tony gonzales, he was arthur johnsons alternate

[boxmel]

No alternates started at the 2000 Olympics. Tony Gonzales was one of my favorite people. Any idea what he is doing these days?

[babyhuey]

tonys one of those guys you like from the first time you meet him,
i wish i could tell you hes a doctor or something,
he was working at a bakery for a while, but got in some trouble
lost his job, drivers lincence ect.
tony just kind of bounces from place to place,
he lived a half mile away from here in beaverton for a while,
moved to san diego, back to oregon,...???
i havent heard from him in about a year, i hope hes doing good,
but what can i say, if he lived life like he boxed he would be one of the most sucessful guys around,
but life and boxing are too different things unfortunitly ...

[boxmel]

Sigh. :( I knew Tony when he lived in San Diego and boxed for Robb Coons (he was an elite athlete at that time). I knew his dad was a big shot in bad business and Tony got caught up in it every once in a while. I don't think anyone in San Diego has heard from him in a long time. Such a waste.

[babyhuey]

he gained alot of weight, but, he would come to the gym every blue moon and spar, you could tell he still had talent
but beer with other decisions would stop him from taking it anywhere,
i know he fought pro for a short time, think he signed with bob arum
and to his admittence he burned his bridge with arum, i never got the
story out of him, i have tryed to look up his professional record on boxrec but couldent find anyone who matched his named age or whatever, ...???

[boxmel]

I just tried looking for him, too - couldn't find anything. I think there is one who might have been him, with a 2-1 record.

[babyhuey]

I just tried looking for him, too - couldn't find anything. I think there is one who might have been him, with a 2-1 record.

i dont think thats him, tony couldent have gone pro before 88
i know he had just a few fights,
if were looking at the same guy, he had his debut in 86....????

[boxmel]

Yeah, you're right. I don't see anyone who could be him. Guess we'll never know.

[DionneInBmore]

There are no true Olympic alternates. Once you have made the Olympic team, there is no replacement. It is the boxer who qualifies for the Olympics, not the weight class. The U.S. does take elite boxers for training and sparring with the Olympic boxers but they would not replace an Olympic boxer if he couldn't compete.

So?is there a way to find out if someone participated in the activities u mentioned? The idiot i live w swears he was sugar ray leonards alternate in the 76 olympics. He tells stories about eating meals with bruce jenner while they were all up there in montreal, and other occassions of gathering with sugar ray and other boxers to raise money for charity. All diff kinds of stories! Hes quite convincing, except that....i cant find a single record of em!! He swears his record is 50&2 but there isnt anything online about him. I recently saw a pic of the boxing team from 76. There was only 1 white guy and it definitely wasnt him! Idt it was him anyway. I showed it to em n he said he couldnt tell if it was him or not. Idk, iwt believe him but my gut instinct just won't allow me. How can i find out if any of these things are true? Do u no?
( btw: his name is FRANK LANCASTER hes from baltimore)

[margaret thatcher]

Well, if a guy qualifies for the national team and to compete in the Olympic qualifying events, I would say an alternate is someone who would replace them in qualifiers if they had to withdraw for whatever reason. I'm sure this exists in some countries, rather than just having no one at that weight attempt to qualify?

[JMac]

The system was different in '76. Now once you make the team, you have to then go through qualifiers either through the world championships or continental qualifiers. Back then, any country could send a boxer in every weight class. Too many boxers were not experienced enough to compete on that level hence the qualifiers now. There is also now a quota on the total number of athletes for each sport in the Olympics.
I'll ask around with some people who competed with Leonard back then from the Wash DC area that would know about Frank Lancaster. There are a lot of bullshitters in boxing so we'll find out.
Speaking of Ray Leonard, he made an appearance this past Saturday at the DC golden glove tournament. The guy that runs the DC golden gloves fought Leonard 3 times. He'll know if Lancaster is telling the truth.