Medal favorite Russell disqualified
BEIJING - His Olympic dream over before it even began, boxer Gary Russell sat on his mother Lawan's lap yesterday afternoon, shaking his head and staring at the floor. Across town roads were closing, helicopters hovered overhead, and the Games' opening ceremonies, in which he should have walked, were about to begin. And yet as they sat there in the window of an apartment in the city's Dongzhimen district, mother and son were both on the verge of tears.
"I don't know, my mind's so blown," Russell said less than 12 hours after collapsing in his dormitory room in the Athletes' Village, keeping him from a mandatory 7 a.m. weigh-in and knocking the bantamweight from Capitol Heights, Md., - a medal favorite - from the Olympics.
He still seemed befuddled about what happened in the early-morning hours yesterday as he scrambled to shave 1 pound 4 ounces from his body to get to 119 pounds before the US boxing team left for the weigh-in. He has faced such situations hundreds of times. This time, though, something went terribly wrong.
Around midnight Thursday, knowing he needed to lose the last little bit of weight before the 5:30 a.m. bus to the weigh-in, Russell called a friend, volleyball player Kim Willoughby, to go for a jog. When she stopped by at 1:30 he donned his usual vinyl sauna jacket and began to run a path through the Village. After about half an hour, Russell turned to Willoughby and said he couldn't generate any perspiration. Willoughby, sweating profusely in the sweltering heat, looked at Russell and began to panic. He shed his sauna jacket and still couldn't sweat. Willoughby suggested he go back to the dormitory and rest, perhaps waking up extra early to chew gum and spit out the extra pound.
Russell instead chose to work with USA Boxing assistant coach Robert Martin, who has helped Russell's father, Gary Sr., train him back home in Maryland. After several minutes of punching gloves with Martin still didn't cause him to sweat, he went up to his room with Willoughby and Martin and said he would rest for a few minutes before rising again to resume his workout.
After lying on the bed for five minutes, he said he was ready to resume his workout. He stood and immediately collapsed.
Willoughby estimates that Russell lost consciousness for at least five minutes, maybe 10. Even after doctors arrived, Russell did not awaken, instead thrashing his arms, rolling on his side, and demanding food and water. The doctors later told Russell he had a temperature of 105 degrees and a low pulse. They gave him three bottles of fluids and cookies. They also covered him with wet towels and ice to cool his body.
"It was so obvious this was dehydration," Willoughby said.
By 5 a.m. Russell felt better. But the rush of fluids and food had pushed his weight to 123 pounds. He scrambled, looking for ways to lose the added weight. Then he looked out the window and saw a bus driving away with the boxing team, headed to the weigh-in. He was out of the Olympics.
Officially, he was disqualified for failure to show up for the weigh-in. This fact infuriated him.
"There's going to be a lot of drama and people saying I lost on the scale," he said. "I was willing to put my life on the line to make this happen. I was going to win this tournament. I was going to make sure that everyone back home knew that I had given my best and I gave it my whole effort. I look back at it and know I gave it 110 percent. I've been through [cutting weight] so many times I know the process. This time my body wouldn't do it. I just stood up and then I was looking at the ceiling."
He paused and looked around the apartment, owned by an American family who offered a room to Russell's parents when they heard that Gary Sr. and Lawan were struggling to come up with the money for the trip. Then, mentioning the people who donated money to help the parents get to Beijing, he said: "I want to let them know that everything they said, all the encouragement, didn't go in vain."
Gary Jr. had planned to turn professional as soon as the Olympics were over. Yesterday he said he had not thought much about that possibility as he was still trying to dissect what had happened the night before. But he figured he would fight at a bigger weight than 119 pounds.
"I was more than ready," he said of the Olympics. "Honestly, this was the first time in five years that I came to a tournament and everything was working . . . I came in 100 percent healthy."
