Boxing
On This Day: Muhammad Ali strikes gold at Rome Olympics aged just 18
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Muhammad Ali’s professional career is the main reason he claimed he was ‘The Greatest’ to ever box, but on this day in 1960, the American reached the pinnacle of the amateur sport with victory at the Rome Olympics.
Still fighting as Cassius Clay, Ali was just 18 when he clinched gold in the light heavyweight tournament, defeating four men en route to glory.
While it is 65 years to the day since Ali defeated Pole Zbigniew Pietrzykowski, an Olympic gold medal is not won by victory in one match. Here is how he got to the top step of the podium.
Muhammad Ali's journey to the Olympics
Despite only being a teenager, Ali would fight 108 times as an amateur, winning two national Golden Gloves tournaments, on top of the eight he won at state level, two Athletic Amateur Union titles, and most importantly, the Olympic trials to book his spot on the plane to Italy.
Ironically if there was one place Ali did not want to be, it would be a plane - having not enjoyed the experience of flying to California for the Olympic trials, he told his trainer, Joe Martin, that he would not be interested in travelling to Rome to compete.
Martin would later tell HBO: “We had a rough flight going to California for the trials and so when it came to go to Rome he said he wasn’t going to fly, and that he wouldn’t go. I said: ‘Well, you’ll lose the opportunity of being a great fighter,’ and he said: ‘Well, I’m not going to go.’
"He wanted to take a boat or something. Anyway, I finally took him out to Central Park here in Louisville and we had a long talk for a couple or three hours, and I calmed him down and convinced him if he wanted to be heavyweight champion of the world, then he had to go to Rome and win the Olympics.”
Some of the reassurances required for Ali to fly across the Atlantic Ocean would be the purchase of a parachute; he proceeded to wear it for the entire journey to Europe.
Muhammad Ali proves to be near flawless en route to gold
Ali’s route to gold was as dominant as it could be. In the first round of the tournament he faced Belgian Yvon Becaus; the referee stopped the contest in the second round, fearing a nasty knockout.
The draw was not kind to Ali, immediately pitting him against Gennady Shatkov of the Soviet Union. Shatkov had won gold in the middleweight competition at the previous Olympics in Melbourne, and as such, was a hot favourite for glory at a higher weight.
Russian-born Shatkov would retire as an amateur with a final record of 215 wins and 12 losses, yet he was whitewashed by Ali despite being 10 years older.
Central Press/Getty Images
That set the tone for the rest of Ali’s run to gold. Australia's Tony Madigan was another experienced operator, having already competed at three previous Olympics. His fate was the same of Shatkov - dismissed 5-0 by the baby-faced Ali.
Already guaranteed at least silver, Ali finished the mission against Pietrzykowski. Although Ali would take another 5-0 decision win, the Polish fighter asked questions of the American, especially in the first two rounds.
Ultimately Ali’s class shone through in the remaining three stanzas, securing the gold medal without dropping a single round.
Muhammad Ali turns professional a month after Olympic gold
Ali’s victory over Pietzrykowski was his final win as an amateur. In total he would win 100 fights in the unpaid code, starting in 1954.
Having won gold in September, Ali was back in the ring by October - but with the important distinction of fighting as a professional. Tunney Hunsaker was the man tasked with welcoming him to the paid ranks; Ali took a unanimous decision victory over six rounds.
By the end of the following year Ali would have racked up 10 straight wins, with only three opponents making it the full distance. Ali would have to wait just 10 more fights until he got his first world title shot.
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Entering the fight as an 8/1 underdog to undisputed heavyweight champion Sonny Liston, Ali produced a massive upset midway through the fight.
Having survived the best Liston had to throw at him, a salvo in the sixth left the reigning titleholder unable to rise for the challenge of the seventh round. At 22, Ali was champion of the world again, this time as a professional.
Ali would go on to become a three-time heavyweight champion before hanging up his gloves in 1981.
Muhammad Ali’s missing gold medal
Elated by winning gold, Ali simply could not keep his hands off his medal. In a quote from years later, Ali recalled: “I didn’t take that medal off for 48 hours. I even wore it to bed. I didn’t sleep too good because I had to sleep on my back so that the medal wouldn’t cut me. But I didn’t care, I was Olympic champion.”
In his 1975 biography, The Greatest: My Own Story, Ali claimed that he had thrown his medal into the Ohio river after being denied service at a ‘whites only’ diner; the United States still firmly under segregation at the time.
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The story is largely viewed to be apocryphal, with many of Ali’s friends denying it. In a later biography written by Thomas Hauser, it is claimed that ‘The Greatest’ simply misplaced the medal in the years following his victory.
No matter how he lost his medal, Ali would receive a replacement almost 40 years later, when the United States hosted the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
Ali was a big part of the opening ceremony, lighting the cauldron with the Olympic flame.
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