Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Boxing's Tragic First

This is not one of my feel good post, so do not expect any witty jokes. In Denver Colorado, Becky Zerlentes became the first woman to die in a sanctioned amateur boxing match at the age of 34, due to blunt-force trauma to the head according to a medical examiner in Denver. She was three rounds into a Golden Gloves match, when she took a right cross to the side of her head (temple region), lost consciousness, and later died. Ironically, Zerlentes had told her coach (Jeanne DePriest) previous to the bout that it would be her last boxing match, how tragically true. Apparently, she was ready to hang-up her gloves to pursue interests in other sports.

With great rewards comes great risks, the price of competition can be high, and in fact devastating. Zerlentes paid the ultimate price with her life, her opponent Heather Schmitz, age 32, will pay by having to live with the memory of the tragedy.

No fowl play or previous known medical conditions involved here, just an unfortunate accident of time and circumstance. Each fighter wore protective headgear covering their foreheads and both sides of their face, along with mouth pieces, and protective body padding. Each contestant was given a physical exam prior to the bout, and both athletes were cleared to fight. There were also three ring-side physicians present at the time of the bout. Denver police spokeswoman Teresa Garcia said, "a preliminary investigation reported the cause of death as subdural hematoma" (internal bleeding caused by a hard blow.) Schmitz reportedly told television reporters that, "she felt horrible and she didn't want to hurt her."

I just have one thought:
No, I did not know Becky Zerlentes or Heather Schmitz, but I do know that we are all bonded by the will to see and experience what our best can be, and to me that is well worth taking risks for. So on that note, rest in peace Becky Zerlentes.

4 Comments:

Blogger Krys said...

Very witty blog. I enjoyed reading it very much. Mind if I link you to mine?

2:35 PM  
Blogger B-Flx said...

No problem, link away. Thanks, for dropping in.

3:06 PM  
Blogger B-Flx said...

scruuw:
You never know what the day or night has in store for you.

9:04 PM  
Blogger B-Flx said...

eden:
Thanks, Just doing my part to clutter up the web. :)

10:17 AM  

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