Yesterday, Ireland's Aoife O'Rourke lost to Poland's Elzbieta Wojcik in her opening last-16 middleweight bout at the Olympic Games in Paris. The decision to award Wojcik the win has sparked significant backlash online from boxing pundits and fans both at home and abroad.
O'Rourke, who is boxing for Ireland in the 75kg category, was unbeaten against the unseeded Wojcik in six prior meetings, but this time she lost in a 3-2 split decision that many consider wrong.
In the first round of the fight, Wojcik aggressively rushed O'Rourke but lost a point for repeated holding, with most judges scoring the round in O'Rourke's favour. In the second round, Wojcik's relentless swarming swayed three judges, despite O'Rourke landing strong punches. Despite more warnings for holding and slapping in the third round, Wojcik avoided further penalties, with her high-volume punching impressing one judge.
The final scores were 29-27, 29-27, 26-30, 28-29, and 28-28. A Canadian judge unexpectedly picked Wojcik as the winner.
"I'm so disappointed. I've let everyone down," O'Rourke told RTÉ Sport shortly after leaving the ring. "Myself, the coaches, all the support... I didn't train the last few years to come out [like that]. I gave it my best, and that's all I can ask of myself."
The internet reacted strongly to O'Rourke's surprise loss, with boxing pundit Steve Bunce and former Irish boxer Bernard Dunne agreeing that the win should have gone to O'Rourke.
A devastated Aoife O'Rourke reacts to her split decision defeat against Elzbieta Wojcik of Poland#RTESport #Paris2024
📺 Watch https://t.co/b2OI4OpuLh
📱Updates https://t.co/01ShZjMyXa pic.twitter.com/I3wGB7se1J— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) July 31, 2024
"I don't agree with that decision. I thought O'Rourke was a fairly comfortable winner in that contest," said Bunce on BBC 5 Live.
Dunne echoed this sentiment, saying, "I don't know how they came to the decision that they did," he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland. "I think Aoife did incredibly well; I thought she spoke incredibly well, but for me, that was a disgraceful decision.
"On the scoring criteria they are using, one of them being competitiveness, unless this bout was a wrestling match, there wasn't much competitiveness from the opponent, and the referee, I thought, was extremely poor in managing it.
"He gave a warning very early against Wojcik and then just cautioned her for the remainder of the bout. I've got the bout on here in the background, and I'm still confused about how they came to the decision."
Fans have also voiced their opinions on the matter. One X account said, "Another poor decision in boxing. This time, it denies the Irish boxer. Some of the decisions in this Olympic Games boxing tournament have gotten me to the stage where I am genuinely done with them. Utter rubbish. Aoife O'Rourke won that."
Another user said, "Utter disbelief on the face of Aoife O'Rourke as her Polish opponent has her hand raised tonight in Paris. Four years of work and sacrifice went down the drain thanks to curious scoring and refereeing. Absolute sickener."
Ireland will also have more boxers enter the ring today. Daina Moorehouse will face Wassila Lkhadiri at 7pm and Jack Marley will face Daviat Boltaev at 9.08 p.m.
