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Wednesday, May 31, 2000
Soldier’s path
to Sydney started
in Hawaii
Olanda Anderson, a light
By Pat Bigold
heavyweight boxer on the
U.S. Olympic team, honed
his skills at Schofield
Star-BulletinWhen you're a young buck private stuck at Schofield Barracks without a car to reach town, there are only so many things you can do.
You can walk into Wahiawa and hit the clubs, if you're old enough to drink. You can stay on post and hang out in your quadrangle or spend a few bucks for junk food at the post exchange.
One night in 1993, a bored 20-year-old combat infantry recruit named Olanda Anderson decided to take a short walk to the only post gym with a boxing ring.
His fellow grunts might have chuckled at his desire to exert sweat after a full day in the field. But that short walk led to a seven-year journey which will put Anderson in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Just like his teammate, 106-pound Brian Viloria of Waipahu, Anderson could wind up a rich man by late October if he medals in the light heavyweight division.
"Schofield was a huge steppingstone for me," Anderson said in a telephone interview from Colorado Springs last week.
"I learned the basics there, and the confidence to go on to the next level."
The night he sauntered into the post gym, he met retired Army coach Wilfred Davis, who was conducting an evening session.
"He said he came from Sumter, South Carolina, and he said no one had ever really trained him the right way," Davis said.
Anderson and his younger brother, Bobby, had spent a year together working out at a gym back home just for the fun of it.
Olanda wanted to go to college but didn't have enough money, so he opted for the Army.
"He said he wanted to fight and I saw he had power and could take a punch," Davis said. "And he wasn't so macho that he wouldn't listen. He listened good and was real motivated. A real nice kid."
Anderson won fight after fight in Hawaii competition and within six months, he qualified for the All-Army team.
Davis, who was an All-Army coach from 1987 to 1990, recalled how Anderson fought out of his class his first time out. He faced a favored Marine heavyweight from Kaneohe and won.
"He was dominating out here," Davis said.
On Hawaiian soil, he never lost.
"In my first year, I boxed in the state Golden Gloves and won," said the 6-foot-2, 185-pound Anderson. "But I remember the committee didn't have the money to send me to the nationals."
Anderson, who is now a staff sergeant, five ranks above where he was in 1993, fought out of Schofield until 1995.
In his last year here, he began a streak of four All-Army championships.
It was the same year that his brother went to prison on a manslaughter charge. His brother's wrong turn saddened Anderson but it also further motivated him.
He propelled himself into the 1996 Olympic boxing trials where he lost in the challengers' bracket final.
This year, he finally made the Olympic team, but only after a roller-coaster series of events.
He won the Olympic trials but then lost twice to Michael Simms Jr. in the Olympic box-offs held in Connecticut in February.
That put Anderson out of the Olympic team picture as Simms went to Tampa, Fla., to box in the mandatory Americas Olympic qualifier.
But after reportedly failing to keep curfew and adhere to practice schedules, Simms lost to Canada's Troy-Amos Ross, a fighter he should have beaten easily.
Just before the Central American Olympic qualifier in Tijuana, Mexico, the second-chance qualifier, Simms was officially removed from the team and Anderson got the call.
Anderson won in Tijuana and secured the light heavyweight spot for the U.S. in Sydney.
It happened only days after Marshall Martinez, the U.S. lightweight boxer, resigned from the team after reports that he'd been stealing.
It was the first time that two boxers were removed from or resigned from the U.S. boxing team.
"I don't really want to get into that but I feel blessed to go to the Olympics," Anderson said. Adding to the drama of his Olympic year is the fact that Anderson suffered a broken eardrum listening to loud music in March.
"It didn't bother me in Tijuana, and I don't think it will affect me down there," he said.
Davis said he thinks that if Anderson "just keeps his mind together," he will medal in Sydney.
"He's very determined," Davis said. "And it makes me feel good that I brought him out of that infantry company seven years ago."
Sydney 2000 Olympics
