Trupish living example of woeful system By Steve Simmons, SUN MEDIA

BEIJING - The great dilemma for amateur sport in Canada is found in the rather unfortunate body and sound mind of Adam Trupish.

Here is a second-time Olympian, 16 years in the making, ridiculously over his head at the Summer Games, $25,000 in debt, and in one breath calling for Canada to spend more on boxing while at the same time declaring that this may be the end of an era of sorts.

It is all that complicated and contradictory.

“Canada qualified one boxer here,” said Trupish, absolutely annihilated in his one and only match of the Olympic boxing tournament Sunday afternoon. “The next Olympics in England, we may not even qualify anybody. It’s not looking good.

“Sport in Canada is treated like a hobby where in other countries it’s treated as a profession.”

In the ring Sunday, Trupish looked closer to hobby than profession. He was that badly beaten by a mouthful of a fighter named Bakhyt Sarsekbayek of Kazakhstan. Just seconds into his only bout of the boxing tournament, he was knocked down after a pair of straight left hands.

Then came a standing eight-count. The lopsided score of 20-1 - one point away from an automatic stoppage - was almost generous.

All of the lacking funding that Trupish likes to crusade about would not have bought his way into his fight.

“I speak to kids in schools and I tell them, follow your dreams,” the welterweight from Windsor said. “I tell them about my story. I wanted to be a fighter. I wanted to go to the Olympics.

“But you know, if I would have taken the same determination and the same time, I could have been a doctor or a lawyer. I’d be financially stable and I wouldn’t have to borrow money for a cab. Who knows? I could have been both a doctor and a lawyer because I’ve been doing this for 16 years. I’ve made it a full-time job.

“That’s a sad state of affairs for athletes in our country. If you don’t come from a wealthy family...”

He didn’t finish the sentence.

But the point is worthy of some debate. Who chooses to become athletes and what, if anything, is owed to them for doing so? Whose dream is the Olympics and is it the government’s responsibility to finance that dream?

Nobody forced Trupish to become amateur boxing champion of Canada seven different times. And nobody promised him he’d get rich going to two Olympics and losing in the first round both times. But then, nobody told him he’d be going to the Olympics without a proper support team around him, having to borrow an Irish coach at the last minute yesterday, having inappropriate training prior to the Games.

“I haven’t fought since October,” said Trupish. “I wasn’t chosen to go on any international tournaments this year. Instead they send second-rate guys all over the world to tournaments and I was kept on the sidelines. I don’t know why.”

Now Trupish’s Olympics is over and he wonders about his personal finance.

“I’m in debt just to buy presents for everyone back home. That’s the problem with our funding system for our top athletes. I’m in China and I’m living on whatever stores accept credit cards. I took four months off just to train for this. My line of credit is about 25,000.”

At least Trupish won one fight Sunday.

Just minutes before he was knocked down, boxing officials were trying to keep him out of the ring. Tournament organizers claimed his Canadian outfit did not meet the requirements.

In a way, that was his Olympics.

“I’ve got a guy with an Ireland jacket in my corner,” said Trupish. “I’ve seen (boxing) countries with three coaches, managers, physiotherapists and psychologists. And all I’ve got is (trainer) Charlie (Stewart) - and his massages suck.”