By Alexey Sukachev

The 2016 Rio-de-Janeiro Summer Olympics have come to an end, effectively ending what was a special Olympic boxing tourney in more than one way.

Putting a much more detailed and thorough analysis aside (for this moment), the last day of the Olympics presents everyone with a very good reason for a medal count by countries. This year the results were both predictable and sensational.

What was totally unexpected was the rapid rise of the Uzbek national amateur team. Uzbekistan was always known for its boxing school but for years those rich traditions and loads of boxing talent have been struggling mightily to manifest it the proper way. Uzbekistan’s only gold had been got by Mohammad Abdullaev in Sydney - but the present team captured thrice as many for clearly the best result in the Uzbek history.

Uzbekistan was well behind Cuba before the final day of the Games but thanks to gold medals of flyweight Shahbiddin Zoirov and light welterweight Fazliddin Gaibnazarov the Cuban result has been broken for good.

Uzbekistan is the third former Soviet republic (aside Russia), who has put itself into contention with a stellar generation of fighters. The deepest load of talent was presented by the Ukrainians four or five years ago, their leaders making successful move to the pros for even more accolades. The Kazakh team dominated its domestic world championship with at least some names to look after but failed to live up to its expectations in Rio.

The Cuban team was both a winner and a loser of the Rio Olympics. Its comeback had been predicted long before the start of the tourney, and getting three gold medals after just two in London and zero (0) in Beijing sounded great. On the other hand, Cuba failed to restore its official medal leadership, giving way to the Uzbeks, and some of their leaders (like Rosniel Iglesias or Lazaro Alvarez) failed to live up to their personal expectations and to retain or capture the Olympic gold.

These Olympics were also marred with the weak performance of the Russian national boxing team (showing its worst result in years) and the slight comeback of the Americans (one silver and one bronze medal among the men).

Final standings (Male competitions) – top national amateur teams.

1. Uzbekistan: 3 gold – 2 silver – 2 bronze (medals)

2. Cuba: 3-0-3

3. Kazakhstan: 1-2-1

4. Russia: 1-1-2

5. France: 1-1-2

6. Brazil: 1-0-0

7. Great Britain: 0-1-1

8. USA: 0-1-1