Teofilo Stevenson – Olympic boxing legend

Introduction to boxing
Stevenson was born in 1952 and grew up in a small town in Cuba. He started boxing as a teenager and, when he was 13, went to Havana to train at the national sports complex. "I lost 14 of my first 20 fights," said Stevenson. "I hated getting hit. What happened was that I decided I hated losing even more."

Olympic success
When he was just twenty years old Teofilo went to the Olympic games in Germany and won a gold medal. He was tall and powerful with a long "reach". His long arms could hit opponents before they could hit him. At the Games in Canada in 1976 he won the gold again. In the ring, boxers were afraid of Teofilo, they tried to stay away from him and not get too close to his powerful punches. He won another gold medal in Moscow in 1980. Only two of the fights he had at the Olympic games lasted for the full three rounds. That means he either knocked his opponents to the floor and they were counted out or the referee stopped the fight because it was too dangerous for the other boxer.

Going professional
Stevenson was such a good boxer that people outside the Olympic games and Cuba wanted him to turn professional. After he had won his first gold medal managers and famous promoters started to offer him money to fight around the world. Teofilo turned them all down. He wanted to stay in Cuba and didn’t want to fight for money or fame.

Ali v Stevenson
Lots of people think that Teofilo Stevenson was as good as the famous boxer Muhammad Ali, but the two fighters never fought each other. They did meet outside the ring and the two men are now friends. Teofilo thinks 'it would have been a draw' if they had fought.

What Teofilo does now
Teofilo doesn't fight any more. He now works for the Cuban Ministry of Sport and he is also the vice president of the Cuban Boxing Federation. He likes spending his time with his family and he is still regarded as a legend around the world and in Cuba where he still lives.

【滬江小編】特奧菲洛·斯蒂文森是奧運歷史上最偉大的拳擊運動員之一。他出生于1952年，生長在古巴的一座小城鎮(zhèn)，13歲開始正式訓練，年僅20歲就在德國首次奪得奧運金牌，隨后又贏得1976、1980年奧運冠軍，且以“速勝”著稱，成為令其他運動員畏懼的對手。盡管取得如此巨大的成功，他卻始終淡泊名利，始終沒有答應經(jīng)紀人們要他轉(zhuǎn)為職業(yè)運動員的建議。令拳擊愛好者們略感遺憾的是，他從未和有“拳王”之稱的阿里一較高低。兩人私下是朋友，但很難估計賽場相逢會有怎樣的結(jié)果。

特奧菲洛·斯蒂文森現(xiàn)已退出拳壇，在古巴體育部門任職，并任古巴拳擊聯(lián)合會副主席。他喜歡花更多時間陪伴家人。當然，在他一直生活的古巴，以至在全世界，他仍然是一個神話。