Coach’s Memory of No-Show in Seoul Lingers On

It has been five months since that dark day in Seoul, but the question still is asked: What happened?

So Ken Adams keeps the answer in his briefcase. And shows it to all who ask. And some who don’t.

Adams is here as a trainer for five boxers from the Seoul Olympics in their professional debuts tonight. But he inevitably gets asked about the fighter who is not here, middleweight Anthony Hembrick, who has yet to turn pro.

Hembrick was the famous no-show in Seoul, the man who was knocked out of the Olympics because he arrived too late for his scheduled bout.

Adams, coach of the U.S. team, took the blame then, and still does. Sort of.

When the question arose again Thursday, Adams came up with a mysterious scenario.

“No way did we make a mistake,” Adams told a reporter. “You see, we were told we were going to have the fifth bout that day. But what people don’t know is that the night before, some Korean guy gave us a new schedule that showed us with the 11th fight.”

That, Adams insists, completely changed his game plan.

“You didn’t want to get there too early because they put you in this crowded room where a bunch of people were smoking,” he said.

“So when the first bus came along and it was real crowded and there were elbows everywhere, I told our guys to wait. I didn’t want them to get hurt. We’d get the next bus. That was 9:50 (a.m.). The first fight was at 10. You figure about 10 to 12 minutes for each fight. They told me another bus was coming right along. Well it didn’t show up until 10:30. We walked in there at 10:45, and they had just announced we were out.”

And did he ever find the shadowy Korean figure who handed out the revised schedule? “No I never did,” Adams said. “But I know we were set up. We were the only ones who got that schedule. We were operating on the idea we had the 11th bout. We figured we had plenty of time. If I had known we were fifth, I’d have made sure we were there an hour and a half before.”

Adams reached into his briefcase to produce the schedule. Looking at it, a reporter pointed out that although there might be some confusion over the order of the bouts, the schedule clearly showed Hembrick’s match scheduled for 10 a.m.

“I know it. I know it,” Adams said. “But we were set up. We may have even been set up at the bus when that crowd got on.”

And with that, Adams put the schedule back in his briefcase.

Until the question is asked again.