Juan Venegas

Juan Venegas
Data
Birth Name	Juan Evangelista Venegas Trinidad
Weight class	Featherweight , bantamweight
nationality	Puerto Rico
birthday	June 2, 1929
place of birth	Río Piedras , Puerto Rico
Date of death	April 16, 1987
Place of death	San Juan , Puerto Rico
Combat Statistics
Struggles	32
Victories	20th
Defeats	2
draw	10
Medal table
Olympic games 0 × 0 × 1 ×
Olympic games bronze London 1948 Bantamweight

Juan Evangelista Venegas Trinidad (born June 2, 1929 in Río Piedras , † April 16, 1987 in San Juan ) was a Puerto Rican boxer .

biography

Juan Venegas was born in the then independent municipality of Río Piedras (now part of San Juan ). Street fights were often part of everyday life back then and many young people saw boxing as a way to a better life. So also Venegas, whose model was Sixto Escobar . Venega's achievements in boxing drew the attention of the island's Olympic Committee, and he was nominated for the Puerto Rican delegation to the 1948 Summer Olympics in London . In the bantamweight he won the bronze medal, which was also Puerto Rico's first medal at the Olympic Games.

After his return he became a professional boxer and competed in featherweight and bantamweight in 32 fights. On April 16, 1987, Venegas fell in his home and died as a result of a fractured skull.

In honor of his memory, the Puerto Rican Boxing Federation sponsors a tournament named after him that prepares future Olympic boxers.

Web links

• Juan Venegas in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )