Thais seek redemption
Chatchai-decha and Sudaporn eye gold
Thailand began their participation in the Olympics at the Helsinki Games in 1952, but had to wait for more than two decades for their first medal.
The first Thai Olympic hero was boxer Payao Poontarat, who won bronze at the 1976 Montreal Games.
Boxers were also the country’s first ever Olympic silver and gold medallists — Thawee Ampornmaha, a runner-up at Los Angeles 1984, and Somluck Kamsing, a champion at Atlanta 1996.
After Payao’s success, the Thai boxers claimed at least one medal at every Olympics except the 1980 Moscow Games when the country joined the US-led boycott.
That streak ended at Rio in 2016 when Thai fighters failed to win a single medal.
The Thailand Boxing Association (TBA), under president Pichai Chunhavachira, and its athletes are…
