Jim McCourt

James Vincent McCourt was an Irish boxer from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Biography

McCourt won a bronze medal for Ireland in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in the lightweight division. He lost a hotly disputed 3–2 decision to Russian Velikton Barannikov in the semi-final. Shortly after the games, McCourt defeated Olympic champion Józef Grudzień of Poland. A year later, he repeated his bronze medal performance at the 1965 European Amateur Boxing Championships in Berlin in the same grade.
McCourt represented the 1966 Northern Irish Team at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica, participating in the 63.5kg light-welterweight category and won the gold medal.
McCourt was rated the number one amateur boxer in the world for four years. A master of defence and counter punching, he was inducted in the Irish Amateur Boxing Hall of Fame.