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Brian Harkin
Luis Yanez
On Saturday night in Beijing, the dreams of Olympic gold fizzled for Duncanville boxer Luis Yanez. Today there was an interesting piece on Yanez in The New York Times that suggests the tension between Yanez and his Olympic coaches is emblematic of the problems on Team USA as a whole. Notes the piece, before Yanez’s final bout he was getting conflicting advice from his Team USA coaches and from his trainer at home, Lewisville’s Dennis Rodarte, who turned the light flyweight into a two-time national champion. The result was a confused fighter who lost a bout he should have won.
Now that Yanez is out, the team is down to one remaining fighter and is guaranteed the worst Olympic performance ever for U.S. boxing. Before the Olympics began, head coach Dan Campbell briefly kicked Yanez off the team and suggested Yanez couldn’t succeed unless he learned to do things Campbell’s way. Now that all of the team’s fighters but one are out of the tournament, it’s tough to think that Campbell’s way was the right way for Yanez or any of the fighters on the team. –Jesse Hyde
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