Olympics snub angers Audley Harrison

Like him or not, there is no denying that Audley Harrison occupies a pretty unique position in British boxing. He is the only British boxer in the past 40 years to have won an Olympic gold medal. But, when the Games start in Beijing on August 8, Harrison will be at home in California, not in China.

It is a situation that does not sit easily with Harrison and, during  conference call to promote his July 19 bout with Martin Rogan, Harrison expressed his disappointment with both the ABA and the BBC for not using his expertise to help the record team of eight that will represent Team GB in Beijing.

"I'm happy for the team, I'm surprised that with my experience, they don't reach out to me," Harrison said.

But Harrison, who won super-heavyweight gold medal in Sydney in 2000, has had problems with both the ABA and BBC. Prior to winning his gold medal, he had a major falling out with Terry Edwards, then the national coach and now the GB performance director, which resulted in neither speaking to each other and ended up with Edwards being excluded from Harrison's corner. His much criticised relationship with the BBC went into meltdown after the riot at York Hall that followed his win over Mathew Ellis.

"I am surprised that even with my experience - and my commentating expertise - they would not reach out to me, whether speaking about it on TV or over there helping the kids out in terms of mental application," Harrison said. "Because that is what the Olympics is about - a lot of these kids go to the Olympics, where it's a big experience with all these sports stars, and it blows their mind.

"I'm just surprised they wouldn't let bygones be bygones. I'm not chasing them at all."

In fact Harrison said he had recieved overtures about helping the United States team. "I'm over here in America, in the gym here," he said. "These people have been tapping into me. If I was that way inclined, I could end up in the Colorado Institute with the American team.

"It's a joke really, because you're not tapping into all your resources in terms of trying to get medals.
Terry Edwards thinks he knows it all. That's another issue for another day but I wish them all the best, 100%, and I'm rooting for every one of them."

Comments

[Boxing Bets]

Yep. I'm not the biggest Audley fan (infact i rather dislike him), but you cannot take away from his achievements, and winning the Gold medal was a fantastic achievement. I applaud him for it.

But just because he won doesn't mean he deserves to be out there as a coach or whatever. Obviously on the surface of it it seems like given his experience it would be a good idea, but really what do we know. I don't know how good a coach he is, or how much of an inspiration he is. it's all conjecture!