On 55th Birthday, Sugar Ray Leonard Reveals Sexual Abuse From Olympic Coach
by Scott Christ on May 17, 2011 5:30 PM EDT
in Boxing News Analysis
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Boxing Hall of Famer and true living legend Sugar Ray Leonard turned 55 today, and is a happy man living comfortably, by all accounts.
But in his upcoming book "The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring," Leonard reveals a 40-year-old pain from his days as an amateur boxing star. Harvey Araton of The New York Times has more, but here's a brief quote:
[Leonard] reveals publicly for the first time that he was sexually abused as a young fighter by an unnamed "prominent Olympic boxing coach."
Leonard writes that when the coach accompanied him as a 15-year-old and another young fighter to a boxing event in Utica, N.Y., in 1971, he had the teenagers take a bath in a tub of hot water and Epsom salts while he sat on the other side of the bathroom. They suspected "something a bit inappropriate" was occurring but did not want to question a strong male authority figure.
Several years later, Leonard describes sitting in a car in a deserted parking lot across from a recreation center, listening intently as the same coach, said to be in his late 40s, explained how much a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics would mean to his future.
He was flattered, filled with hope, as any young athlete would be. But he writes: "Before I knew it, he had unzipped my pants and put his hand, then mouth, on an area that has haunted me for life. I didn’t scream. I didn’t look at him. I just opened the door and ran."
The coach goes unnamed, but the claim has shocked longtime friends and associates of Leonard, including trainer Angelo Dundee and HBO's Ross Greenburg, and I'm sure will stun many of his fans.
There's not really a whole lot to add to this other than to say that it takes courage for a man like Ray Leonard to write about this, no matter how long he waited. I'm sure the years haven't been particularly easy tucking this away and never saying anything about it, but it's important that he said it.
And Bad Left Hook of course wishes Sugar Ray the best on his 55th birthday, and for many more to come. As Greenburg says, Ray is no sad boxing story, no matter what.
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sick
my best friend got molested by a priest while he was studying to be one. He had never stepped anywhere near a church since. It’s good SRL didn’t associate the bad coach from boxing as a whole, or we would have not been entertained by his brilliance.
by erasedcitizen on May 17, 2011 8:07 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
There’s not really a whole lot to add to this other than to say that it takes courage for a man like Ray Leonard to write about this, no matter how long he waited.
And the reason it is important is that it might encourage other victims of molesters to come forward.
"Luck is when preparation meets opportunity." - Mike Quarry
damn..
Was not expecting that…I wonder if he ever got help at some point. If not, that takes a very strong person to get through that alone.
I would never take something like this lightly, but something about it seems a bit off...
He was 19 or 20 when the second incident went down. Not a child. A grown man who could defend himself. So why did he allow another man to undo his pants, fondle him and then put his mouth on him? That couldn’t have happened in a split second. Imagine yourself in that situation… I really doubt the perv would have got that far with any of us at that age.
Because this was before the ’76 Olympics, and the (accused) abuser was his Olympic boxing coach. In a position of power of SRL because, presumably, he could have kicked SRL off the team if he resisted or tried to report the incident.
by Verklemptomaniac on May 18, 2011 11:10 AM EDT up reply actions
He was in a position of authority to Leonard, like Verklemptomaniac said. At 19/20, I wasn’t a star amateur athlete like Ray Leonard looking to go to the Olympics. So yeah I probably would’ve hit the mug with a beer bottle, but I ain’t Ray Leonard and I didn’t have that much to lose. I’m also reluctant to assume how I would have reacted at 19/20 (which isn’t as grown up as legalities make it seem) to being molested. I’d like to think I’d have kicked some ass or at least tried to, but the shocking nature of it might well have just made me run away, too.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on May 18, 2011 11:38 AM EDT up reply actions
Stunning
Not surprising at the same time, because it’s so dramatic that it takes a while for people to come out. A similar thing was revealed by US Senator (MA) Scott Brown.
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