The United States of America won all the medals when boxing made its debut on the Olympic programme during the 1904 Olympic Games in Saint Louis. Not surprisingly, the United States was the only team to enter the boxing competition! Boxing was not included in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm because Swedish law prohibited boxing. In 1950 the AIBA Congress decided to have no contests for the bronze medal. It has thus been the practice since the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki that the losers of the semi-final are both ranked as placing third. In 1952 both third place finishers were only awarded diplomas. In 1956 this was changed and bronze medals are now given to both third place finishers.

A more recent change to the rules and regulations occurred at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles when the compulsory wearing of head guards was introduced. An electronic scoring machine to make judges' officiating more objective was also introduced in 1992. Now only blows registered within one second by at least three of five judges are taken into account.

(BOCOG)