James Shuler was a U.S. Olympic and professional boxer

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 from Philadelphia known as "Black Gold."

Amateur career

Shuler was the 1979 and 1980 National Golden Gloves Light Middleweight Champion.
He qualified at 156 pounds and was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic boxing team that perished in an air crash in Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, on March 14, 1980 http://www.astm.org/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/JOURNALS/FORENSIC/PAGES/JFS2002083_476.htm?E+mystore. Shuler was not with the team, however, as he had stayed in America due to injury http://www.ringsidereport.com/rsrboard/viewtopic.php?t=1778&sid=b22eb3829dfc2758cb58faead4d32fd3. The team was en route to Warsaw, Poland for the USA vs. Poland Box-off as part of "USA vs. the World." event. Among the USA Boxing teammates who were killed in the plane crash were Lemuel Steeples from St. Louis; Calvin Anderson from Connecticut; Paul Palomino - the brother of Carlos Palomino

Carlos Palomino

Carlos Palomino a retired Mexican professional boxer. Palomino is a former WBC Welterweight Champion and member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Palomino is also an actor who has been featured in several television shows and films...

 ; George Pimentel, and Olympic Coach, Sarge Johnson. Members of the team who were also not aboard included Bobby Czyz

Bobby Czyz

Robert Edward "Bobby" Czyz is a retired American boxer. A New Jersey native of mostly Polish and Italian descent, he is both a former world light heavyweight and cruiserweight champion.Czyz was born in Orange, New Jersey...

 and Alex Ramos

Alex Ramos

Alex Ramos is a former middleweight boxer from the 1980s. A native of Manhattan, New York, he is Puerto Rican by his parents' side. He was nicknamed "The Bronx Bomber", after Joe Louis, whose nickname was "The Brown Bomber"....

 http://www.ikfkickboxing.com/RBF.htm.

Shuler's hopes were dashed when President Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

 imposed an Olympic boycott that forbid the U.S. Olympians from competing in the 1980 Summer Olympics

1980 Summer Olympics

The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament...

.

Professional career

Shuler began his professional boxing career as a middleweight on September 12, 1980 with a second-round knockout of Chris Rogers in Philadelphia. During his five years as a pro, he had 22-1 record with sixteen knockouts. His first loss came on March 10, 1986 to Thomas Hearns

Thomas Hearns

Thomas "Hitman" Hearns is a retired American boxer. Nicknamed the "Motor City Cobra" and more famously "The Hitman", Hearns became the first boxer in history to win world titles in four divisions. He would also become the first fighter in history to win five world titles in five different divisions...

when he was knocked out in the first round.

Death

Shuler used the money he earned from the Hearns fight to buy a motorcycle. Just one week after the fight, Shuler was killed when he crashed his motorcycle in Philadelphia http://www.phillyboxinghistory.com/boxers/boxer_shuler.htm. His death came six years and three days after the flight that he was originally scheduled to make in Poland.

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