Ri Byong-uk: North Korea’s Two-Time Olympic Boxing Medalist
North Korean boxer Li Byong-Uk, also rendered as Ri Byong-uk, won two Olympic medals in men’s light-flyweight boxing: silver in 1976 and bronze in 1980. Olympedia’s athlete record documents both Games.
Montreal 1976
At the Montreal Games, Li reached the light-flyweight final and lost to Cuba’s Jorge Hernández, earning silver. Olympedia’s event record lists the final and medal.
Moscow 1980
Li returned four years later and won bronze in the same division. He also earned silver at the 1978 Asian Games, as recorded in his Olympedia profile. Those results establish his standing as one of North Korea’s most successful Olympic boxers.
Two Olympic medal campaigns
Li opened his Montreal campaign with a knockout victory over Canadian boxer Sidney McKnight. He later stopped Thailand’s Payao Poontarat in the semifinal, securing a place in the championship bout. Hernández won their final by majority decision. Li’s silver followed Kim U-Gil’s silver in the same weight class at Munich in 1972, giving North Korea a second consecutive Olympic finalist in the division.
His route through the 1980 Moscow light-flyweight tournament included decision wins over Poland’s Henryk Pielesiak, Mexico’s Gilberto Sosa and Romania’s Dumitru Șchiopu. The quarterfinal victory over Șchiopu guaranteed another medal. Soviet boxer Shamil Sabirov then defeated Li in the semifinal before going on to win the gold medal against Cuba’s Hipólito Ramos.
Both Olympic medals came in the 48-kilogram category. Together with his Asian Games silver between those appearances, they show sustained success across successive major international tournaments rather than a single breakthrough performance.
Sources
Tags
Boxing, Boxing History
