Cuba has dominated Olympic boxing for decades. The team is on the ropes at the Paris Games

PARIS (AP) — Erislandy Álvarez didn't expect to carry the weight of a proud boxing nation on his shoulders when he takes the ring Wednesday night in an arena packed with fans rooting for his opponent.

Yet that's where Álvarez finds himself after a miserable Paris Olympic tournament for Cuba.

The gifted 24-year-old lightweight is the only boxer with a chance to win a gold medal at these Olympics for the most consistently successful team in the sport for decades.

After earning four of Cuba's seven total victories in Paris, Álvarez fights Sofiane Oumiha of France in the 63.5-kilogram final at Roland Garros. Win or lose, he will take home one of only two Cuban medals — its smallest haul from an Olympics in 56 years.

“There is one left,” Álvarez said through an interpreter. “We are going to give it our all. This is the last one, and it is the most important.”

Only the U.S. team has won more boxing gold medals and total medals than Cuba, and the Americans' haul dramatically decreased over the past two decades while Cuba remained formidable. Packed with tremendous fighters who could aspire to nothing higher than the Olympics unless they defected, Cuba produced a long line of dominant champions, topped by two of the three members of the boxing triple gold club: Teófilo Stevenson and Félix Savón.

But this Olympic cycle has been terrible for Cuba, which adjusted slowly to gender equity in the sport and got caught between generations of talent development. Cuba will head home with its fewest medals since 1968, when it won only two in Mexico City.

Only five Cuban boxers qualified for Paris, although they included a pair of two-time gold medalists: heavyweight Julio César La Cruz and middleweight Arlen López.

La Cruz then lost his opening fight — to a Cuban opponent fighting for Azerbaijan.

López secured a medal but lost his semifinal to rising star Oleksandr Khyzhniak of Ukraine.

“It hasn’t been a positive cycle," López said. “We could (only) manage two months of preparation outside of Cuba, but that’s how these events work. We always want to be that beacon that shines on those behind us, but that's sports. You win some, you lose some.”

Cuba’s team in Paris is small because the Olympics have changed since Tokyo.

The IOC, which is running the Olympic tournament through a task force, dramatically altered the sport by adding dozens of women and subtracting even more men to reach gender parity. Overall, the 248 boxers in Paris comprise the smallest field at a Games since 1956.

That was a problem for Cuba, which lagged behind the rest of the world in embracing the growth of women’s boxing. Cuba lifted its internal ban on women’s competition in the sport only in late 2022, and none of its women qualified for the Olympics.

Cuba has failed to win a gold medal in boxing only once since 1968, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Cubans still topped the overall table in Beijing with eight total medals, but several countries will match or exceed Cuba's total in Paris — even the Dominican Republic, which had only two boxing medals in its entire Olympic history before winning two more in Paris.

Cuba won two golds in London, three in Rio de Janeiro and four in Tokyo. The progress has been interrupted in Paris.

“We still have a strong team,” Álvarez said after stopping his opponent on the opening day of the tournament last month. “(Cuba is) always a top team at the Olympics and every competition, and that will stay the same. This is a different year because we have only five boxers, but we continue to do our best to win gold medals.”

The Paris tournament started to go south for Cuba on the second day when La Cruz was stunned 3:2 in his opening bout by Loren Alfonso, a confidence-shaking result.

“We are sorry about the defeat of our team captain, but we are still four boxers left,” flyweight Alejandro Claro said. “We have to assume the responsibility. We have another two-time Olympic champion going for a third, and we have three young boxers in their first Olympics. We have got to put the team’s weight on our shoulders. We are going for results and to keep Cuba on top.”

Featherweight Saidel Horta couldn’t get out of the round of 16, losing his opening bout.

Claro fought impressively into the quarterfinals but failed to secure a medal when he narrowly lost to Billal Bennama of France.

López won two fights, even beating impressive prospect Turabek Khabibullaev of Uzbekistan, before he ran into Khyzhniak, likely the best pound-for-pound fighter in Paris.

While López performed impressively over three rounds, Khyzhniak won with his relentless pressure and high-volume power punching. After losing the final round 5:0, López had to settle for bronze.

Before the Cuban team can reload, everything comes down to Álvarez's chance to add one more gold medal. Álvarez and Oumiha also fought in Uzbekistan a year ago, and Oumiha won.

“But that was in 60 kilograms, and that was a year ago,” Álvarez said. “Now we are in the Olympic Games, which is the biggest thing. It’s his backyard, but I don’t focus on the stands or the public.”

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Associated Press Writer León Felipe Girón contributed to this report.

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games