Olympics Boxing 2012: Ogogo Countback Controversy Explained, Sort Of

Let's put a lid on the countback controversy (controversies?) -- Anthony Ogogo is going through to the quarterfinals, and the British middleweight remains one of the great stories of this year's Olympic boxing thus far, whether you like today's win over Ukraine's top-rated Ievgen Khyrtov or not.

The AIBA threw out the appeal from Team Ukraine (not really from Khyrtov, who expressed no anger over the judges' second tiebreak decision), and sort of addressed the fact that the official release scores on the London 2012 web site added up to 53-52 Khyrtov, not 52-52. What it appears is the case, at least as far as I and others can really tell, is that ALL five judges' cards are added up, not just the three official "cards," and then the highs and lows are thrown out. So through the convoluted, rather silly way of going about this, everything appears on the up-and-up as far as math is concerned.

This is likely the exact same case for Team USA heavyweight Michael Hunter Jr, who lost yesterday on countback, but was actually ahead 30-29 on the official overall scores. In other words, when it comes to countback, two things:

1. "Official" ain't really official anymore, and becomes something else.
2. We don't get to know those scores unless they're even, and they're not going to tell us.

Olympic boxing has been mostly fun this year, with a few minor controversies, a couple major controversies, and some justice served. With this at least kind of explained at this point, I think we're back to a solid status right now. Let's hope it keeps up with this afternoon's live fights.