Wijan Ponlid

Who is Wijan Ponlid?

Wijan Ponlid is a Thai boxer who competed in the Men's Flyweight division at the 2000 Summer Olympics and won the gold medal. He returned to Thailand to a hero's welcome: honored with a new house, over 20 million baht, a job promotion, and paraded at the front of a procession of 49 elephants through the city of Bangkok.

Ponlid defeated Vardan Zakaryan of Germany in round 1, Andrew Kooner of Canada in round 2, upset Cuban Manuel Mantilla in the quarterfinal, beat Vladimir Sidorenko of Ukraine in the semifinal and finally met Atlanta silver medalist Bulat Jumadilov of Kazakhstan in the final. The Thai led after every round of the bout, despite Jumadilov taking the second 6-5 to pull back to 9-7 behind, and caused endless problems for the Kazakh with his probing right lead and quick left.

In a messy fight, both men fell to the canvas twice in the third round as they pushed and clinched, but Ponlid led 15-11 at the bell and then made sure of gold by dominating the fourth.

It was Thailand’s second gold medal in Olympic boxing following featherweight Somluck Kamsing’s euphoric victory at Atlanta in 1996.