US Olympic Boxer Kicked Off Team for Caring For Sister's Family While She was in Rehab

[TXCharlie]

Story about a local boxer I know, sort of, Luis Yanez...

I've known this kid and his trainer Dennis for years, because when he wasn't boxing he used to work as a waiter in Dennis's restaurant where I've eaten for like 20 years. Sometimes I still see him in there. He always greets us with a big smile and bends over backwards to serve us. This kid is super.

He was absent from training to care for his sister and HER KIDS in a FAMILY EMERGENCY, for heaven sakes!!! Can't the stupid Olympic Committee see the big picture here?

Besides, the kid doesn't need much training - I don't think he's lost a match in the US in years, and he's won most of the world matches he's been in.


His Wikipedia Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Yanez

Boxing Bio: http://www.usaboxing.org/86_1398.htm

Story:
http://www.star-telegram.com/olympics/story/756484.html

What’s not needed here is a knockout

By GIL LeBRETON
glebreton@star-telegram.com



DALLAS — Flanked by lawyers, instead of Olympic teammates, Luis Yanez had his day in court Friday.

Until the people who run USA Boxing come to their senses, it might be as close to the Olympics that the Duncanville fighter gets.

Yanez’s hearing to be reinstated to the U.S. Olympic team was conducted via a two-hour teleconference call.

All the better, maybe. There’s already been enough face-to-face bad blood that’s brewed between the Yanez camp and Dan Campbell, the U.S. Olympic boxing coach.

Yanez was removed from the team June 30 for allegedly violating team rules. Campbell’s rules, we presume — specifically, for not returning in a timely fashion to the Olympic cloister that Campbell has been conducting in Colorado Springs, Colo., for the past 10 months.

How overdue Yanez was, as well as who called whom and has the cellphone records to prove it, appear to be the essential facts in the decision that is expected to be announced Monday morning. If the committee rules against Yanez, the case likely will go to arbitration.

The Yanez people are not denying that their fighter, who is 19, might have messed up. But his extended stay, they argue, was due in part to a family emergency, a sister with a drug problem.

"The bottom line here is that the USA Boxing coach and their governing body feel a rule has been violated," said Scott DeWolf, an attorney for Yanez. "We understand that there may have been a rule violated, but that rule violation was because of a family emergency. Mr. Yanez did nothing except choose to put his family first in a time of crisis. We simply do not believe that the 'crime,’ if you will, warrants the punishment."

Both Campbell and the head of USA Boxing, Jim Millman, have not publicly commented on the Yanez hearing, though Campbell has been quoted as rashly calling the fighter a liar.

He’d better be able to prove that. Yanez has good lawyers.
DeWolf doesn’t absolve his client of any blame.

"Mr. Yanez has never been in trouble before," the attorney said. "His issue is that he didn’t show up, but it was because he was attending to a family problem.

"I think if the committee considers that, they’ll see that what he did in a time of crisis is the kind of integrity that you want an Olympian to show — to choose his family first.

"He may have a lesser penalty. But to take his Olympic dream away is simply not fair at all."

In a random article or two, Campbell has suggested that there’s more to the incident than has been reported. That’s his story. And Yanez has his. An arbitration hearing, indeed, might be the only way to resolve this.
But if this is the way that Millman and USA Boxing want to celebrate their sendoff to Beijing, they’d better be prepared to go the distance. Campbell, his credentials and coaching methods, and his dubiously lengthy resident training camp have drawn ire and caused controversy even before he tried to kick Yanez off the team.

Yanez, it should be noted, had been elected captain of the team in a vote of his Olympic teammates.

He had already agreed to forfeit a reported $6,000 stipend for his time spent away from the training camp. That should be penalty enough.
When he walked away from the U.S. camp, Yanez also knew that he would be able to return to the gym and work with his longtime trainer, Dennis Rodarte.

One of the stipulations of the yearlong Campbell camp was "no personal coaches." Which makes no sense. These fighters have trained most of their lives with a single coach, and just when they’ve achieved a lifelong dream and made the Olympic team, Campbell wants to ban their coaches and start retraining them his way?

It’s genius like this that has made USA Boxing a sad shadow of what it once was. The United States has won only one gold medal (Andre Ward, 2004) in the past two Olympic Games.

Yanez had been viewed as one of four U.S. fighters who have a chance in China to break the golden slump.

When the American public sits down to watch the Olympics in a few weeks, it won’t be tuning in to watch Dan Campbell. And most people will be aghast if they hear that a gold medal contender, the team captain, was kicked off the squad just so a hard-headed old coach could prove who’s boss.

If they don’t reinstate Yanez, they had better be prepared to go the distance. And Millman and his cronies should be prepared for two weeks of columns and TV stories about "the Luis Yanez case" instead of features about the eight other boxers who made it to Beijing.

The right thing to do should be obvious.

[TXCharlie]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/071208dnspoboxingyanez.1d7a4ea .html

Yanez decision expected Monday


11:03 PM CDT on Friday, July 11, 2008


By DIEGO APARICIO / Al Día
daparicio@aldiatx.com


The USA Boxing Judicial Committee will decide Monday whether to reinstate Duncanville boxer Luis Yanez to the U.S. Olympic team.
"Luis wants to be fighting in a boxing ring," said Yanez's attorney Domingo Garcia after Friday's hearing, which was held via teleconference. "He doesn't want to be fighting in a courtroom or arbitration."



Sports Videos

Yanez appeals for Olympic reinstatement

If the committee rules against Yanez, the boxer's next step is to go to independent arbitration within 48 hours, Garcia said.

Since June, Yanez, 19, has trained with his personal trainer five days a week in Oak Cliff. He said he's running six to eight miles a day in preparation to return to the team.

"I'd like to think positive," Yanez said, "and I'm only waiting for the decision to go to Beijing and bring that gold medal."

Time is limited for Yanez. The boxing team will travel to San Jose, Calif., on July 21 for processing and will fly to China two days later. The Games start Aug. 8. Should Yanez not return to the team, Team USA would lose one Olympic spot.

USA Boxing dismissed Yanez from the team last week, after the boxer missed three weeks of training with the Olympic team in Colorado and a mandatory trip to Argentina. Yanez said he was tending to his sister, who was in drug rehab, and her four children.

Yanez is currently above his 106-pound fighting weight.

Garcia said that USA Boxing admitted there had been communication between Yanez and national director of coaching Dan Campbell.

USA Boxing would not comment after the hearing, citing the confidential nature of the proceedings.

"We are not saying he shouldn't be sanctioned," said Garcia. "Basically, the death penalty of his Olympic career is too severe a sanction."

Meanwhile, Yanez's eight Olympic teammates held their final public workout before Beijing in Brooklyn, N.Y.

"I think the whole situation is terrible, and they should let him back on the team," middleweight Shawn Estrada told the Associated Press. "People can learn from their stupid mistakes."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[mack]

I used to watch the Olympic Boxing to see who the next professional boxers would be and follow their careers, but the slim pickings in the last few years and the HBO Showtime etc Pay per View deals have made it hard to follow. I prefer the heavy weight divisions but even there good boxing has dwindled.

[CTR man]

The IOC has long been known for falling into the stupid, idiotic, and asinine categories.

[armsmaster270]

What an asshole. Almost every olympian has their own trainer. and he wants to be God.

[TXCharlie]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont....5f9c2e19.html

01:11 PM CDT on Wednesday, July 16, 2008
By JUSTIN FARMER / WFAA-TV


NEWS 8 REPORT
Justin Farmer reports
July 16, 2008

NEWS 8 REPORT





Justin Farmer reports
July 16, 2008
LINK: Sources: Yanez to rejoin Olympic boxing team
LINK: WFAA sports blog: Yanez sees wrong, goes to Olympics
LINK: More WFAA sports blog
LINK: More stories about Yanez
LINK: More sports
LINK: More News 8 video

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Luis Yanez now has the opportunity to realize his Olympic dream.

He skipped mandatory training for a family emergency and was kicked off the team.

Now he's been reinstated but with some conditions.

Yanez hired one of the most famous lawyers in town - Domingo Garcia - who took the case pro bono.

Garcia brokered a settlement which reinstates Yanez, 19, back on the Olympic team in time to make the flight to Beijing with his team mates, set to leave next week.

Yanez will have to pay a financial penalty.

He will also have to make a public apology and apologize to his coach and his U.S. team mates.

He must also visit a sports psychologist.

The Duncanville native has taken gold twice at the pan-American games.

"I learned... about Yanez and his family. That he never gave up. And I don't think he will ever give up when he goes to China," said Garcia.

"He is a young man who has a lot of talent, a lot of drive, and a lot ambition. When you put that combination together, along with the talent he has in those hands, it's a great combination."

Yanez will join his team in Colorado Springs today.

E-mail jfarmer@wfaa.com