Final

By Lee Griggs, Kumiko Makihara and Ellie McGrath/Seoul

Beforehand, experts wrote off the U.S. Olympic boxing team as a mere shadow of the 1984 squad, which had won a record nine gold medals. But last week they finished with eight medals -- three gold, three silver and two bronze. Except for the boycotted 1984 Games, it was the best U.S. total since 1904. The gold winners: bantamweight Kennedy McKinney, 22, light heavyweight Andrew Maynard, 24, and heavyweight Ray Mercer, at 27 the oldest U.S. fighter, who danced delightedly around the ring after knocking out Korea's Baik Hyun-man. Light middleweight Roy Jones, 19, lost a plainly mistaken decision to Korean Park Si-Hun (even some Korean fans disagreed with it) but wound up with a measure of revenge: he was named the best fighter of the Games by the International Amateur Boxing Association.