Boxer's Parents: 'No Fat to Burn'Too Much Weightlifting May Have Contributed to Russell's Collapse BEIJING, Aug. 9 -- The parents of disqualified Capitol Heights boxer Gary Russell Jr. criticized the organization that runs the national team and its coach, Dan Campbell, on Saturday, saying USA Boxing's emphasis on weightlifting left their son too muscle-bound for his 119-pound weight class. They said this made it difficult for him to cut even minor amounts of weight before a fight.
"I told him not to lift," said Gary Russell Sr., the father and coach of Gary Jr., as he and his wife left a women's volleyball game Saturday night. "That's not the type of thing he should be doing. That's bulk lifting that they had him doing there."
Gary Sr. has clashed with Campbell in the past and has been one of the most vocal critics of USA Boxing's residential program, an experiment that required the Olympic fighters to live for a year at the U.S. Olympic Committee's headquarters in Colorado Springs. Many of the boxers' individual coaches have complained about the program, saying it takes the fighters away from the people who have trained them for years.
The Russells' frustration began to boil over Saturday, a day after their son collapsed while trying to lose a pound and four ounces before a mandatory 7 a.m. weigh-in.
Gary Jr., who was revived by doctors, was suffering from a form of dehydration. After taking in three pounds of fluids to recover, he had no chance of making weight, disqualifying him from the Olympics.
In recent months, Gary Sr. has worried aloud that the weight program in Colorado Springs was not appropriate because boxers must make regular weight requirements. Excess muscle mass makes it difficult to cut fat from the body. "With Gary, there was no fat to burn," said his mother, Lawan. She said her son had recently come home from Colorado looking like a professional weightlifter
with hulking arms and an iron grip. She became so concerned about her son's size that she told her husband he needed to go to Colorado Springs to oversee Gary Jr.'s training. "That's exactly what they've been telling him, that he needs to lift and be a powerlifter," she said.
Both Russells were angry at perceptions that their son was either lazy or had somehow let himself get too fat before the weigh-in. Rather, they said his collapse -- which came after he was unable to sweat during a half-hour run and a 10-minute workout while wearing a vinyl sauna jacket -- was probably a problem waiting to happen. They believe that because USA Boxing's training program left him with no fat to remove, the only way he could cut weight was by drinking fewer fluids, putting him at risk for something like Friday's incident.
"Losing a pound was normal to him, but because of the bulk-lifting stuff, he had so many muscles, so guess what didn't come off," Gary Sr. said. "It's not him losing on the scale. There's really more to it than that."
Campbell told reporters Friday that Gary Jr. had difficulty sweating in workouts last week, a fact that concerned the coaches as a possible sign of dehydration. On Saturday, Campbell said he was done talking about Russell and has ordered the team not to speak on the issue, even pulling assistant coach Robert Martin, who works with the Russells, away from an interview on the subject.
Gary Jr. said Saturday that he did not have a problem perspiring during the week before his collapse.
"Everything felt natural and normal," he said, adding that his routine for trying to burn off weight was the same one he has used for years.
Said Gary Sr.: "I'm sure in my emotions I would like to find someone to be a scapegoat. I'm going to be real and not put the blame on Dan Campbell. I always thought the residential program would be good if the personal coaches would be more involved."
