Val Barker Trophy


The Val Barker Trophy is presented every four years to the most "outstanding boxer" at the Olympic Games. In theory, the award goes to the top "pound for pound" boxer in the Olympics. The winner is selected by a committee of International Boxing Association officials. The trophy is named after British boxer Val Barker who won the Amateur Boxing Association of England heavyweight title in 1891, before becoming the secretary of the AIBA between 1926 and 1929.
The inaugural recipient of the Val Barker Trophy was American flyweight Louis Laurie who won bronze at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. He is one of just three boxers who did not win gold at the same Olympics in which they were presented with the trophy, the others being Kenyan featherweight Philip Waruinge and American light middleweight Roy Jones Jr.. American boxers are the most successful with six awards, while Kazakhstani boxers have won the trophy on three occasions. In the 2016 Games, two Val Barker Trophies were presented for the first time, one for men and one for women; women's boxing made its Olympic debut the previous Games in 2012. The inaugural female winner was middleweight Claressa Shields who became the first American boxer to win two consecutive Olympic gold medals when she defeated Dutch boxer Nouchka Fontijn in Rio de Janeiro.

Recipients

GamesLocationBoxerNationalityWeight classMedalRef
1936BerlinFlyweight
1948LondonLight heavyweight
1952HelsinkiLight heavyweight
1956MelbourneLightweight
1960RomeWelterweight
1964TokyoMiddleweight
1968Mexico CityFeatherweight
1972MunichHeavyweight
1976MontrealLightweight
1980MoscowLight welterweight
1984Los AngelesLight flyweight
1988SeoulLight middleweight
1992BarcelonaSuper heavyweight
1996AtlantaLight heavyweight
2000SydneyWelterweight
2004AthensWelterweight
2008BeijingFeatherweight
2012LondonWelterweight
2016Rio de JaneiroMen's light flyweight
2016Rio de JaneiroWomen's middleweight