Mario César Kindelán Mesa (born August 10, 1971), best known as Mario Kindelán, is a Cuban former

amateur boxer Amateur boxing is a variant of boxing practiced at the collegiate level, at the Olympic Games, Pan American Games and Commonwealth Games, as well as many associations. Amateur boxing bouts are short in duration, comprising three rounds of three ...

. He is a two-time

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

gold medalist, having competed in the

lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) weight class in the sport of boxing. Notable lightweight boxe ...

division at the

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

and 2004 events. His cousin is baseball player

Orestes Kindelán Orestes Kindelán Olivares (born November 1, 1964) is the most prolific home run hitter in the history of post-revolutionary Cuban baseball, known as "El Cañon de Dos Rios" and one of the offensive stars of the Cuba national baseball team, whi ...

Success

His most successful period came in a winning streak starting with the 1999

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

title, and covered every major event he entered including the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, three world championships ( 1999,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

), and the 2003 Pan American Games. His most recent victory was at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, defeating Amir Khan in the final, and retaining his

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

from four years earlier. Kindelan holds wins over future professional world champions Felix Trinidad, Miguel Cotto, Amir Khan and Andreas Kotelnik. Kindelan also beat fellow Olympic champions Somluck Kamsing and Felix Diaz. Prior to the Olympics in 2004 Kindelan had beaten Khan 33–13 at the pre-tournament as well as beating him at the Olympics 30-22. Mario Kindelan's amateur record was 358–22, having not lost since 1999 till his retirement in 2004.

Amateur highlights

*1998 World Cup Champion *1999 Pan-American Games Champion *1999 World Champion *2000 Olympic Gold Medalist *2001 World Champion *2003 World Champion *2003 Pan-American Games Champion *2004 Olympic Gold Medalist In 1999, he was named as one of the top ten athletes in Cuba, and was named ''Boxer of the Year''.

2000 Olympic Games

*1st round bye *Defeated Pongsith Wiangwiset (Thailand) 14-8 *Defeated

Tigran Ouzlian Tigran Ouzlian (, born February 11, 1968) is a Greek amateur boxer of Armenian descent. He represented Greece as a featherweight at the 1996 Summer Olympics and as a lightweight at the 2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, offici ...

(Greece) RSC 4 *Defeated Alexandr Maletin (Russia) 27-15 *Defeated

Andreas Kotelnik Andriy Mykolayovich Kotelnyk ( uk, Андрій Миколайович Котельник; born 29 December 1977), best known by germanicized name Andreas Kotelnik, is a Ukrainian professional boxer who competed from 2000 to 2014, and held the W ...

(Ukraine) 14–4 in the Gold Medal match.

2004 Athens Olympic Games

Kindelan's results in the games, were as follows: *Round of 32: Defeated

Ahmed Sadiq Ahmed Sadiq (born 7 July 1979) is a Nigerian boxer who participated in the 2004 Summer Olympics for Nigeria. There he was outscored in the first round of the Lightweight (60 kg) division by Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic ...

of Nigeria (RSC-3) *Round of 16: Defeated Asghar Ali Shah of Pakistan (24-9) *Quarterfinals: Defeated

Rovshan Huseynov Rövşən Məmməd oğlu Hüseynov''(born 17 December 1975 in Yeghegnadzor, Armenia) was an Azerbaijani amateur boxer. In 1994 Huseynov won the gold medal (51 kg) at the World Cup Boxing Championship, held in Bangkok, Thailand, having beate ...

of Azerbaijan (23-11) *Semifinals: Defeated

Murat Khrachev Murat Petrovich Khrachev (russian: Мурат Петрович Храчев; born July 25, 1983, in Cherkessk, Karachayevo-Cherkesskaya) is a Russian boxer who competed in the men's lightweight division (– 60 kg) at the 2004 Summer Ol ...

of Russia (20-10) *Gold Medal match: Defeated Amir Khan of Great Britain (30-22)

World Amateur Championships

1999 in Houston, United States (as a lightweight) *Defeated Mahlon Kerwick (United States) 10-4 *Defeated Temur Suleymanov (Uzbekistan) 3-2 *Defeated Pongsith Wiangwiset (Thailand) 8-2 *Defeated Gheorghe Lungu (Romania) 9-4 *Defeated Aleksei Stepanov (Russia) 10-3 2001 in Belfast, Northern Ireland (as a lightweight) *Defeated Donier Khatamov (Tajikistan) RSC-OS 2 *Defeated Martin Kristjansen (Denmark) RSC-OS 3 *Defeated Patrick Bogere (Sweden) RSC-OS 2 *Defeated Alexandr Maletin (Russia) RSC-OS 3 *Defeated Vladimir Kolesnik (Ukraine) 29-15 2003 in Bangkok, Thailand (as a lightweight) *Defeated Boris Georgiev (Bulgaria) RSCH 4 *Defeated Stephen Burke (England) RSC-OS 3 *Defeated Jong Sub-Baik (South Korea) 30-14 *Defeated Gyula Kate (Hungary) 24-12 *Defeated Pichai Sayotha (Thailand) 45-27

Retirement

In May 2005, aged 34, he came out of retirement and travelled to Bolton, England for a third fight with Amir Khan. He had beaten Khan twice already the previous year – in the Pre-Olympic tournament and the Olympic Lightweight final – however Khan had become a popular attraction in the UK and a third fight was arranged to set up his professional debut. Khan beat Kindelan on points 19–13. Having retired, he is generally considered one of the greatest amateur boxers ever seen, leading to the comment during his final fight by the boxing commentator that he was "a professional in a vest". Typical for athletes from Cuba, where professional sport is prohibited, his reward is his pride in representing his people on the Olympic stage. He said, of being offered $1 million to compete professionally, "I thanked them, but money cannot buy what I have."

References

External links

Article
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kindelan, Mario 1971 births Living people People from Holguín Olympic boxers of Cuba Boxers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Boxers at the 1999 Pan American Games Boxers at the 2003 Pan American Games Boxers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Cuba Olympic medalists in boxing Cuban male boxers AIBA World Boxing Championships medalists Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Pan American Games gold medalists for Cuba Lightweight boxers Pan American Games medalists in boxing Central American and Caribbean Games gold medalists for Cuba Competitors at the 1993 Central American and Caribbean Games Competitors at the 1998 Central American and Caribbean Games Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in boxing Medalists at the 1999 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2003 Pan American Games 20th-century Cuban people 21st-century Cuban people