George Kimball American at Large in AthensWhen Australian rower Sally Robbins abruptly quit pulling her oar with 500 metres left in the final of the women's Olympic eight last Sunday, her team mates angrily threatened to, literally, throw her out of the boat and into the water on the spot.
US boxing coach Basheer Abdullah sounded as if he wished a similar fate for Jason Estrada after the American super-heavyweight's dismal showing against Cuban Michel Lopez Nunez at the Peristeri Boxing Hall.
Robbins (promptly christened "Lay-Down Sally" by an uncharitable Aussie press) had tearfully blamed "exhaustion" and "anxiety" for her meltdown in the water at Schinias, but Estrada's loss appears to have stemmed from more basic causes, to wit: corpulence and apathy. "You know what?" he said defiantly. "I don't care."
A night later Abdullah was still seething over Estrada's embarrassing performance during and after Monday's quarter-final bout. The US coach said he was upset by "both the loss, and the way the US athlete conducted himself after the loss".
The super-heavyweight from Providence, Rhode Island, "showed no class, no pride, and no respect," said Abdullah. "I was very disappointed. (Estrada) embarrassed his country, his national governing body, and the USOC. I just hope I never have to go through something like that again."
If Estrada's listless effort was disappointing, the don't-give-a-spit way he welcomed his defeat by Lopez Nunez was nothing short of infuriating. If there can be a silver lining to the disgrace it is that Robert Mittelman, the boxing bottom-feeder currently awaiting sentencing on fight-fixing charges, may have to follow the time-honoured Greek tradition and poison himself with hemlock.
Mittelman, who somehow has retained a passport even though he pleaded guilty to two counts of sports bribery and one of attempting to bribe a federal district court judge earlier this year, apparently plans to manipulate the strings on Estrada's impending professional career. Despite his unsavoury past, he has been allowed free run of the Olympic facilities by USA boxing officials.
It is by no means clear that Estrada even has much of a professional future now. An Olympic medal traditionally brings riches to its owner - England's Audley Harrison, for instance, has parlayed his Sydney gold into $6-million worth of purses despite having not yet faced anyone remotely dangerous - but the woods are full of guys who couldn't get out of the second round.
In Monday's quarter-final Estrada lost a 21-7 decision to a man he had beaten with ease 12 months earlier and offered only token resistance. He then compounded the felony by his casual acceptance of the loss. "These things happen," shrugged the portly boxer from Providence. "You can't win every night. It's no problem at all."
When Estrada fought Lopez Nunez in the Pan-American games final in Santo Domingo last summer he handily out boxed the Cuban. Lopez Nunez and the Cuban team coaches immediately set about developing a revised battle plan for the next time they would face the American, and they worked it to perfection in Athens.
After the Pan-Am Games Estrada also made some changes in his training regimen. He began to eat the next day, and apparently hasn't stopped since. He weighed 228lb when he fought the Cuban in the Dominican Republic last year, and he scaled 263 when he weighed in at the beginning of the Games here.
Estrada blamed missed roadwork (due to a torn plantar fascia incurred over the summer) for the extra heft he was packing, but insisted it would not be a problem because he had, he said, retained his superior quickness. That may well have been the case, but hand speed isn't much help to a boxer who doesn't throw punches, and Estrada threw precious few against Lopez Nunez.
Instead, when Lopez Nunez came out on his toes, flicking jabs from long range and inviting Estrada to attack, the American reacted as if he'd just sniffed out a plot cooked up by Fidel Castro.
"He tried to make me come to him, but I just followed the game plan the coaches gave me," said Estrada. "There was no point in chasing him and giving away even more points." In their Santo Domingo bout last year Estrada won by a 14-6 score.
On Monday the Cuban won the first round 7-1, meaning he landed more scoring blows in the first two minutes than he had been able to over four rounds a year ago. "Sticking to the game plan" under those circumstances would have seemed ill-advised.
Estrada fought slightly better in the second, and late in the round appeared to have scored the fight's only knockdown when he dropped Lopez Nunez with a short right hand. The judges, in any case, gave him credit for a solid blow, but the Azerbaijani referee, Niftali Goliyev, declined to administer a count to the Cuban.
Lopez Nunez drew away over the final two rounds, which he won by 4-1 and 8-2 margins, as the two spent much of the time wrapped up in clinches.
Estrada claimed the Olympic judges might have been predisposed against him in response to the showboating tactics he had displayed in mocking his neophyte Tongan opponent Ma'afu Hawke (who was engaged in just his sixth ever boxing match) three nights earlier.
"That might have been the reason, but I'll tell you what: I really don't care," said Estrada defiantly. "I'm an entertainer first and a boxer second. I'm going to be Jason Estrada."
It was difficult to avoid contrasting Estrada's attitude to defeat with that of team mate Devin Vargas, who had burst into tears after losing his heavyweight quarter-final match a night earlier.
The Americans had come to Athens with nine boxers, and Estrada's medal hopes were considered brighter than most. One by one, they have fallen, although when light-heavyweight Andre Reed bested two-time world champion Evgeny Makarenko on Tuesday night it ensured the US boxers would go home with at least one medal.
Estrada said after his loss that he planned to stick around Athens to support his team mates. Basheer Abdullah would have preferred, no doubt, to toss him overboard.
