Towards the end of the Tokyo Olympics, Australia’s equal best in terms of gold medals, then-Australian Institute of Sport director Peter Conde was asked about the success he had helped oversee. As a result of the pandemic, Conde was 8,000 kilometres away in Canberra; he had not travelled to Tokyo. But that gave him the distance and perspective to make an astute observation.
While all eyes were on the Dolphins’ golden form in the pool, a long-overdue gold medal for Jess Fox or success in newly-introduced sports like surfing and BMX freestyle, Conde pointed to a lone bronze medal in boxing, a sport first introduced to the Olympic program in 1904.
