SPANISH AMATEUR BOXING: ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION UNTIL THE 1964 TOKYO OLYMPIC GAMES

Abstract:

This research revisits the historical facts and circumstances that involved boxing from its origin in the Spanish federative structures to Spain’s participation in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. This historiographic study used documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews to revisit and contrast information from institutional, personal and newspaper archives, gathering unpublished content from the personal archive and from the interview with a boxer who participated in Tokyo ‘64. Madrid and Barcelona promoted pugilistic practice in Spain in the first decades of the nineteenth century. The arrival of foreign fighters favored the structuring and regulation of boxing and, as a result, in 1922 the Spanish Boxing Federation was founded and became part of the Olympic structures. The Spanish Civil War was a setback, but in the 1960s a generation of boxers emerged who, despite precarious circumstances, managed to attend the Olympic Games and win many subsequent victories.

Keywords:
Boxing; Sports; History; Tokyo