Syed Hussain Shah (Urdu: سيد حسين شاه) (born August 14, 1964) is a retired Pakistani boxer from Lyari, Karachi Pakistan, who won the bronze medal in the Middleweight division (71–75 kg) at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. This was the country's first and only Olympic boxing medal to date.[1] He was the second Pakistani to win an individual medal at the Olympic Games.[2] The only other Pakistanis to ever win individual Olympic medals are the wrestler Muhammad Bashir, who won a bronze medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics, and Arshad Nadeem, who won gold medal in Javelin throw at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Syed Hussain Alam Shah | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | Syed Hussain Shah August 14, 1964 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Pakistani | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight(s) | Middleweight | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Boxing record | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total fights | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wins | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Losses | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Early life
editShah was born in Lyari, Karachi. As a child Shah used to live on streets due to being homeless, he used to work as a labourer to earn money. Shah trained himself for boxing on the streets using garbage bags as a replacement for punching bags.[3]
Career
editShah won his first gold medal at 1984 South Asian Games in Dhaka, along with Asghar Ali, Ilyas Ahmed and Muhammad Yousaf.[4] At the 1987 edition of the Games in Kolkata, he was adjudged the 'best boxer'.[5]
At the 1988 Olympics he shared the podium with Kenya's Chris Sande. He was Pakistan's first boxer to win any medal in olympic boxing. In 1989, the Lyari born boxer received Sitara-i-Imtiaz medal from Government of Pakistan.
Shah, who has also to his credit five gold in the South Asian Games history, remained the best boxer of Asia from 1980 to 1988, a rare prominence achieved by any Pakistani pugilist so far.
He later moved to Japan, where his son Shah Hussain Shah learned judo and went on to represent Pakistan at the international level.[6][7]
Popular culture
editA biopic called Shah was released in Pakistan on 14 August 2015. The film chronicles Hussain Shah's poverty stricken childhood, his rise to fame as the Asian Boxing Champion and Olympic Bronze Medalist, his subsequent return to poverty and finally his migration to Japan to coach Japanese boxers. The movie is directed and written by Adnan Sarwar with music by Adnan Sarwar and Farhan Albert.
Olympic results
edit- 1st round bye
- Defeated
Martín Amarillas 3-2 - Defeated
Serge Kabongo 5-0 - Defeated
Zoltán Füzesy 3-2 - Lost to
Egerton Marcus 1-4
References
edit- ^ Pakistan's Shah Hussain reaches men's judo final 26 July 2014 Retrieved 26 July 2014
- ^ "Must watch: An unsung Pakistani hero comes to life in film 'Shah'". DAWN. 2 July 2015. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
- ^ "Hussain Shah – The boxing icon who won Olympic medal for Pakistan in 1988". dailytimes.com.pk. Daily Times. August 20, 2017. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
- ^ "I SAF Games". sports.gov.pk. Pakistan Sports Board. Archived from the original on April 10, 2020. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
- ^ Nair, Avinash (25 November 1987). "Shah stops clean sweep". The Indian Express. p. 6.
- ^ "Shah Hussain, Pakistan's young Japan raised judo star, hopes for medal repeat at Asian Games".
- ^ "The celebrated son of a forgotten champion". 28 July 2014.
External links
edit- Biography at Pakistan Sports Board Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine
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