Jahmal Harvey has already conquered the world… now can the boxer go to Paris and become the first American man to win Olympic gold since 2004? ‘Everybody is waiting for it to happen’

Jahmal Harvey still calls it The Game: all those hours he spent on the playing field, on the battlefield and in the streets of Vice City and San Andreas.

The 21-year-old grew up in Maryland and spent much of his free time elsewhere – in the virtual worlds of Crazy, Grand Theft Auto And Duty.

“I wasn’t well,” Harvey says. ‘I’ve stopped playing the game now. I don’t have time for it.’ Nowadays he has a new activity, which he is much better at. These days his focus is on the Games.

There are now less than 200 days before the world descends on Paris, where Harvey will clamber between the ropes with great expectations.

It’s been 20 years since a male American boxer came home from the Olympics with gold around his neck. Andre Ward was the last. It’s a remarkable slip for a nation with such a rich fighting tradition.

Harvey has trouble explaining it. Is that all clear? It’s high time for a new hero. Could that be him?

“It would mean a lot to get the gold, of course we want to bring it back to the US,” he says. ‘It’s just not easy: you’re there among other Olympic boxers. The best of the best from all over the world.’

Harvey adds, “It’s just sport… you’re going to win some, you’re going to lose some. It’s just that it only happens once every four years.’

All of that could weigh heavily on Harvey’s 125-pound frame. Instead of? “There’s really no pressure, nothing bad,” he emphasizes.

Harvey has already delivered on the big stage: he is a 10-time national champion, and in 2021 he became the first American man to win an elite world title since 2007. He was only 18 years old. Last year, meanwhile, he qualified for Paris with victory at the Pan American Games in Santiago.

Between now and this summer, the emphasis is mainly on self-preservation. Most of the hard work has been done.

“I’m confident in my ability to go out and compete – and win. It’s about overcoming the obstacles of injury,” he says.

Jet lag shouldn’t be a problem. Life on the US team has given the 21-year-old the opportunity to fight all over the world. Italy remains the ‘most beautiful’ of his road trips.

Paris will be another destination that could be crossed off the list. ‘I never really get to see the city, and that’s the bad part. I can’t find out much,” says Harvey. “But after all the competition is over, we can stay there for a while… I’ll definitely explore the city.”

And if all goes well, it’s time to get a taste of life in professional fighting. “I never really watched the Olympics as a kid,” he says. “The first time I watched the Olympics… was in 2016.”

Harvey added: “We haven’t won a gold medal in so long – everyone is just waiting for it. So it would be great for me. I would get a lot of attention and then I will be a valuable fighter moving into the professional ranks.”

There is no specific path Harvey wants to take. He would like to win a world title. That’s for sure. But besides that? ‘I never really thought about what my dream would be.”

Perhaps that’s because for most of his life, Harvey was never caught up in the glamor and glory of boxing. His father took him to parties when Floyd Mayweather was fighting. Maybe he turned on the TV to see Manny Pacquiao. Unfortunately, his biological clock would normally intervene.

“Floyd didn’t want to fight until late – I always fell asleep!” he remembers. “I had no interest in boxing… I never really thought about boxing.

‘I loved football so much, football is still my favorite sport to this day. I watch more football than boxing.’

To this day, Harvey goes back to watch his old high school games. He might still be playing if his peers weren’t towering over him.

“I was good at football,” Harvey says. “I played running back and I played corner… but as I got older, everyone started getting big.”

He explains, “It wasn’t even that I couldn’t compete. It used to be that coaches just looked at format and judged a book just by its cover… and once I got to high school, I thought, “Okay, I’ll just stick with boxing.”

It was actually his football coach who first steered Harvey towards the boxing gym a few years ago. He was already well versed in fighting – on the streets and at school.

“I was always one of the smallest kids, so I felt like people would test me,” he recalls.

‘So when he first told me I should come and train there, I thought, ‘I can’t wait to try it… All I’m thinking (is) that I’m going to hit someone.”

Barely a month later he was in deep trouble. “My coach never told me who I was sparring with. He just said to me, “Go in,” Harvey explains.

“It’s not like I cared.” But his first sparring partner indeed turned out to be a national champion. “I’m like, ‘Dang, I’m out here competing with the best and I don’t even know it.’

Now he’s between them. Terence Crawford is Harvey’s favorite fighter and there are similarities in their switch-hitting and tendency to respond to attacks with friendly fire. “If he gets hit, he comes right back,” Harvey says. ‘That’s how I am.’

This summer, however, the 21-year-old can accomplish something no one – not Crawford, not any American male boxer – has done since he was a baby.