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Knowing the score Please, boxing journalists are not on the take
SYDNEY, Australia -- The fact that boxing has become sensitive to the issue of intrigue -- the sport has been scared straight by the possibility of being dropped from the Olympics altogether -- ought to have us cheering. And we are. But sometimes we have to laugh, too. The other night a scribe sitting in the media section dialed up a journo on the other side of the arena and, in addition to conducting a loud phone conversation, began waving wildly to signal his whereabouts. About a dozen security folk immediately descended upon him, and the much-startled journo (hey, that's what we're called here) was threatened with expulsion, should he continue to either dial other journos or even wave to them. Of course, expulsion would have been justified just on the notion of bad manners. Do we really need to phone the people near us for the express purpose of indicating how near they are? But this was about something else, the actual integrity of the sport. See, in Olympic boxing the computerized scoring -- whereby a panel of five judges punch in punches -- is supposed to be secret. However, a running tally appears on the video monitors in the press section. The information is not particularly valuable to journos, but it could be in the hands of a cornerman who discovers his fighter is one point behind in the last round. You can see how that might be important to know.
"Do we know the score?" asked Tom Mustin, the U.S. coach. "Of course not. That's against the rules." He was trying hard not double over in laughter as he said it. He may have winked a few times, but everybody was laughing too hard to notice. In fact, the U.S. boxers always know where they stand -- "I knew I was a point behind going into the fourth round," said Jose Navarro, who rallied for a victory on Sunday. Every boxer knows where he stands. And it's not actually against a rule, so it's not cheating, strictly speaking. But it is a little unsportsmanlike. Still, the only people getting caught signaling are the poor journos. The offended cell-phone caller was indignant at the idea he was helping a team whose boxer, at that moment, had 18 points. "Does this mean I can't even scratch my ear?" he asked. A fellow journo speculated he could scratch his ear, but probably not 18 times. Sports Illustrated senior writer Richard Hoffer is in Sydney covering the boxing competition for the magazine and CNNSI.com. Check back daily to read Hoffer's behind-the-scenes reports from Down Under.
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