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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. | 
