DAY 2 : THE SEOUL GAMES : Jerome James Ends Up in Seoul Without a Box-Off

Jerome James, the fighting police officer from Sioux Falls, S.D., arrived in Seoul late Saturday night, with the expectation that he was to be given another chance to make the U.S. Olympic boxing team.

By 10:30 Sunday morning, James and his coach were reportedly trying to get a return flight home.

James, 31, a loser at the U.S. Olympic trials tournament at Concord, Calif., in July, was awarded a favorable arbitration ruling in Minneapolis Thursday, and headed for Seoul, where he was hopeful of a box-off against U.S. Olympic middleweight Anthony Hembrick.

Jim Fox, executive director of the USA Amateur Boxing Federation, said during Sunday morning’s boxing session at Chamshil Students’ Gymnasium that James’ coach, Joe Taylor, also from Sioux Falls, had called him at his hotel earlier in the day.

“I explained to him that the Olympic tournament had been closed at 2 p.m. Friday (9 p.m. Thursday PDT), when the draw began,” Fox said.

“I also informed him that James had missed the Sept. 2 International Olympic Committee entry deadline, as well as the International Amateur Boxing Assn.’s deadline Friday.

“Taylor told me he was sorry for the trouble, that they’d never have come if this had been explained to them.”

On Saturday night, Fox had grown angry when told that James was on his way to Seoul.

“If Jerome James actually arrives here, we will show him every courtesy, including helping him to arrange his transportation back home--at his expense,” Fox said.

“If what we hear is correct, that his attorney actually advised him to get on a flight to Seoul with the expectation of boxing in the Olympics, then that is the worst advice any lawyer ever gave to a client.”

James and Taylor appeared Saturday night at the main gate to the athletes’ village complex without credentials. They sent a message to U.S. Coach Ken Adams.

After 20 minutes, Adams and assistant Hank Johnson arrived to talk with James and Taylor.

“It was kind of pathetic,” Johnson said.

“They actually thought there was going to be a box-off in the village. We told them they’d missed all the deadlines, that there simply wasn’t any way he was going to get on the Olympic team.”

James and Taylor then asked to see Wylie Farrier, the boxers’ team manager. But Farrier, Johnson said, wouldn’t meet with them.

James appealed because Hembrick advanced to the team without having to fight in the team’s Olympic box-offs in Las Vegas in July.

The James case was the third arbitration ruling since July that has angered USA/ABF officials.

The first involved a ruling that restored Adams as head coach of the team after he had been dropped. Adams allegedly hit a federation accountant in Colorado Springs May 12, then was suspended for six months by the USA/ABF, effectively taking him out of the Olympic picture before the arbitration ruling.

Next, middleweight boxer William Guthrie flunked a drug test at the box-off in Las Vegas, and was sent packing. But an arbitrator ruled that he, too, was entitled to another opportunity.

Guthrie and Hembrick then went to Colorado Springs for a box-off, but Guthrie couldn’t make weight.

And now, Jerome James. He became a solid Olympic candidate in March when he upset Hembrick, stopping him in the first round, at the national championship tournament. Going into the Olympic team selection process, the USA/ABF ranked him the No. 1 middleweight.

But at the Olympic trials tournament at Concord, Calif., he lost to Darin Allen, 5-0, in the quarterfinals. Hembrick then won the trials tournament with a 4-1 decision over Allen.

Allen and James were both bypassed as Hembrick’s Las Vegas box-off opponent in favor of Guthrie, who, because of the positive drug test, was not allowed to fight.

The U.S. Olympic Committee routinely passes athlete-federation disputes along to arbitration. And such problems tend to come in clusters shortly before the Olympic Games, a USOC aide said.

“We had several arbitration cases at Calgary, we’ve had several here and we’ll have more at Barcelona (in 1992),” said Bob Condron, a USOC press officer.

“The arbitration avenue was written into the USOC charter as part of the Amateur Sports Act of 1978. It’s sort of a bill of rights for athletes, to make sure they have a lot of avenues of appeal.”

But to an obviously angry Fox, the latest arbitration ruling was “a disservice to everyone.”

“It’s upsetting to the kid who’s on the team (Hembrick), and it was senseless to send a kid all the way across the Pacific and allow him to think he had a chance to box in the Olympics.

“I told Wylie Farrier last night to go sit down with Hembrick and make sure he understands everything is in order, that there will absolutely not be a box-off.”