By Michael Jordan?“It was a joyful feeling…just standing there and seeing the Guyana flag in the air. I think I got cold sweat from joy, and seeing so many people…I don’t think I could get that feeling again…”He doesn’t strike you as someone who is a national hero.No trophies or plaques adorn his home in Shirley Field-Ridley Square. He doesn’t flaunt the medal he won 32 years ago, or the national award he got last year.These days, he’s just another hard-working taxi driver hustling to provide for his family.But it’s when he speaks about boxing? that you see the fervour and passion that made him who he is—-Michael Anthony Parris, former national bantamweight champion, and the only Guyanese to have won an Olympic medal.The champ poses outside Kaieteur NewsBoxing was his legacy from the time he was born on October 4, 1957, into a family of six boys and six girls, to Ralph Parris, a stevedore, and Doreen Parris.He grew up in tough Princes Street, in Lodge, near to the D’Urban Park, where he would watch the likes of Maxie Sergeant and Mark Harris brawl in illegal street-fights on Sundays.By the age of nine he was already lacing on boxing gloves, and he literally grew up in a boxing gym.“My old man used to box and he set up a bottom-house boxing gym,” the boxing icon recalled. Eventually, the six brothers joined the Save the Children Boxing Gym,Cheap NFL Jerseys Stitched, which was located at Freeburg Primary School in Norton Street. Aside from his father, his first coaches were Cedric Williams and Joseph Spencer, both now deceased.That period can be considered the golden era of amateur boxing in Guyana.? “There was Salem Gym, Bauxite Bombers, Ricola Gym, the Republican Gym (where the boxers were mainly tough men who were serving time) the Police Force and Guyana Defence Force Gyms,” Parris reminisced.“There was stiff competition back then, especially when you competed against the Republicans.”His brothers, who were regularly getting into street-fights, considered him the weakling of the pack. He preferred to do his fighting in the ring, and if he was the ‘weakest,’ he was also the brother who trained the hardest.“My brothers always liked to show that they were rough…they never wanted to make the kind of sacrifices that I used to make. I would train early in the morning and afternoon, whether there was a competition or not. I would train every other day because I used to say that I have a goal to achieve.”His dedication paid off. At 15, he won the Junior Amateur Championship while competing as a featherweight (125 pounds). He then began competing in the bantamweight category.Back then, there was a stronger emphasis on sports and when he gained employment at the Guyana Marketing Corporation, he was given time-off to train.He also competed in road races. It was there that he met Ursula Perreira, who would later become his wife.“Even before we married she was always supportive of me. Without her help I could not have achieved all that I did.”The fighters he remembers competing against during this era are Canada-based Guyanese Cleveland Denny (who died from brain injuries after a professional bout),China Jerseys, Walter Smith of the Bauxite Bombers, Paul Wiltshire and Darius Forde, nephew of Reginald Forde and the late Patrick Forde.A close-up view of Parris’ Olympic bronze medal“With me and Darius Forde it was always a big showdown. He was young but I had dedication. I beat him twice as an amateur and twice as a professional. I also competed in the US, Canada, Jamaica the Bahamas and Cuba, so the experience was there.”Except for the Cubans, Guyana dominated practically every Caribbean amateur boxing championship. “We used to dominate back then. The government was really dedicated to sports. I got great support from the government at the time,Cheap China Jerseys, but you yourself have to make the sacrifice.“My goal was to be at the top, and obviously the highest stage is the Olympics.”That opportunity came 1980, with the Olympics in Moscow.The Guyana Amateur Boxing Association selected several boxers, including Parris, to participate in a tournament for a place on the team to Moscow. Parris defeated Darius Forde to secure his berth on the Olympic team, along with Alfred Thomas of the Guyana Defence Force, Barrington Cambridge, and Dansford Brown of the Bauxite Bombers. The coach was the late Courtney Atherly.In chilly Moscow, the young boxer went to almost fanatical extremes to attain his goal.“When I go to cold countries (to fight) I would exercise half-naked. I locked myself in the room (at Moscow), and turned up the air conditioning. I did not go to the (Olympic) march-past,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys, I just stayed in my room and trained.”But he admitted that he was intimidated by the pres