Ian Clyde (born May 15, 1956 in Verdun, Quebec) is a retired boxer from Canada, who represented his native country at the 1976 Summer Olympics. There he was defeated in the quarterfinals of the men's flyweight division (– 51 kilograms) by Cuba's eventual silver medalist Ramón Duvalón. Clyde won a bronze medal at the 1979 Pan American Games. Ian Clyde has followed his career as a professional athlete to offer personal fitness boxing coaching and competitive boxing instruction to young athletes in Montreal.
Born on May 15, 1956 in Verdun, Ian was born with a disability that required him to wear leg braces in order for him to walk properly. Doctors were convinced that Ian would have little chance at ever being able to walk, let alone become an Olympic boxer. When Ian told them he was going be an Olympic boxer someday, they simply smiled and dismissed him.
He told me how his father had encouraged him to box as a means of physical therapy, never really believing that Ian would become a boxer someday.
The words that Ian spoke to me when I asked him about it, will stay with me forever. I asked him how he was able to overcome these huge obstacles in his life, he simply said, “I got tired of everyone thinking I was crazy and dismissing me when I said I would walk, I wanted to show them they were wrong, I knew if I tried hard enough, I could do anything I put my mind too.” He would say the very same about the Olympics, his life and his family.
"Don't let anyone steal your dream, whatever it may be." ~ Ian is often quoted as saying.
"Castro knew that if this Canadian fighter, Ian Clyde, was at the Moscow Olympics, he was a shoo-in for the flyweight gold medal. I always wonder how Hernandez felt after the Moscow Olympics, walking around with stolen merchandise around his neck. Hernandez may have beaten second and third tier fighters to win his diminished medal, but he had to know he was undeserving of the gold precisely because he had not beaten the universally recognized best amateur flyweight in the world, Canada's Ian Clyde. That was Ian Clyde's gold medal. He was going to win it for Canada. He wanted to wear that gold medal on the podium while he waved a Canadian flag and listened to our national anthem. He had thought about nothing else other than that gold medal since the very first recess he missed."
It is not possible to adequately put into words the disappointment felt by Ian Clyde upon hearing of Canada's intention to side with our neighbors to the south and boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics. I am sure all of Canada's 1980 Olympic athletes were upset if not distraught about not getting even a chance to prove their mettle to the world as well as their fellow Canadians. Ian Clyde was no different than his fellow Canadian Olympic athletes about feeling disappointed once Canada's 1980 Olympic boycott became official. Ian Clyde felt disappointment but not bitterness. I would like to stress this point as a constant in Ian's life. Has life been disappointing and cruel to Ian Clyde at times? Yes, without a doubt. However, Ian Clyde doesn't ever give in to bitterness. He's a realist. He's a pragmatist. He accepts what is given to him and then makes the best of it. If he doesn't like his situation, he works hard to change it for the better. To gain perspective on Ian Clyde, one must understand that he had trained hard (without a break) from the age of twelve in order to win an Olympic gold medal for Canada. Moscow would have been Ian's third and final Olympic Games and his best chance at winning a boxing gold for Canada. He was far and away the class of his field.
To train for 18 hours a day was not unusual for Ian Clyde both as an amateur and as a professional. In fact, Angelo Dundee often had to make Ian promise to go home and rest. Since he began boxing as a kid, Ian had only one dream fixed forever in his mind's eye. Win a boxing gold medal for Canada at the Olympic Games. Hour after hour, day in, day out, each year fading into the next one, Ian Clyde willingly made many sacrifices and bore any pain, whether it be physical, emotional or mental, to get that gold medal for Canada. He was willing to die in that ring. It meant that much to him to bring glory to his country. Win the gold or die. It was so simple, he thought. Just dedicate every breath of life you take to one goal and then achieve it. Win the gold or die. Who couldn't understand that equation? The starkest terms possible. Win the gold or die. Ignore the pain, the pulled muscles, the broken knuckles and busted fingers. Pay the price, even the ultimate price, if he must then he would. Win the gold or die. That was the mindset of Canada's Ian Clyde.
Part of Ian's disappointment about the 1980 Olympic Games stems from the fact that he was looking forward to showing his friends and the world that Canada was the home of boxing champions. Everyone agreed that 1980 was going to be Ian Clyde's Olympic gold medal year. He was favored to take the gold medal that year at the Olympics. He won every tournament he was in and he was more than just beating his competition. He was demolishing his opponents in Tyson-like fashion. The limelight shone very early that year on Ian Clyde. Well known Canadian writers called him every day it seemed, asking his permission to write his life story after he won his gold medal in Moscow. Even Canada's most acclaimed writer, Mordechai Richler approached Ian asking if he could be the one to write the book on Ian Clyde. Ian Clyde decided that he was going to write his own book. He took copious notes of his world travels, and described in detail every moment of every round of every fight he was in that year. Who better to tell a fighter's story than the fighter himself.