Jim McCourt

Jim McCourt
Medal record
Men’s boxing
Representing Ireland
Olympic Games
1964 Tokyo Lightweight
European Championships
1965 East Berlin Lightweight
Representing Northern Ireland
Commonwealth Games
1966 Kingston Light Welterweight

James Vincent McCourt (24 January 1944 – 19 June 2023) was an Irish boxer from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

McCourt won a bronze medal for Ireland in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in the lightweight division. He lost a hotly disputed 3–2 decision to Russian Velikton Barannikov in the semi-final.[1] Shortly after the games, McCourt defeated Olympic champion Józef Grudzień of Poland. A year later, he repeated his bronze medal performance at the 1965 European Amateur Boxing Championships in Berlin in the same grade. In 1966, McCourt won a gold medal, representing Northern Ireland, at the Commonwealth Games in Kingston in the Light Welterweight division. McCourt was rated the number one amateur boxer in the world for four years. A master of defence and counter punching, he was inducted in the Irish Amateur Boxing Hall of Fame.

References

  1. ^ John Haughey, 'Jim McCourt: 1964 Olympic boxing medallist and Commonwealth Games champion dies'. BBC Sport, 20 June 2023, retrieved 20 June 2023