Amateur Career
He won broze at the 2004 Summer Olympics, beating 17-year old American southpaw Rau'shee Warren but losing the rematch to Bartelemí. He qualified for the Athens Games by winning the silver medal at the 2004 Asian Amateur Boxing Championships in Puerto Princesa, Philippines. In the final he was defeated by Pakistan's Noman Karim.
In 2005, he won the World Championships in his home country in Mianyang, defeating Hungarian Pál Bedák in the finals, the first Chinese boxer to do so.
In the 2006 Asian Games he won the title, defeating Thailand's Suban Pannon, 21-1 in the final match.
In 2007, he repeated his World Championship triumph beating Russian David Ayrapetyan 23-6 early and Harry Tanamor from the Philippines in the finals. He had to settle for silver at the 2007 Asian Championship Games in Ulan Bator, losing the final bout against local Mongolian Pürevdorjiin Serdamba.
At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, he won China's 50th gold medal by winning the final light flyweight boxing event. It was China's first ever Olympic boxing gold medal. Pürevdorjiin Serdamba of Mongolia, his opponent in the final bout, was forced to retire due to a shoulder injury. After Serdamba was not able to continue, Zou burst into tears. It was anticipated that young Serdamba's recent success against 27-year-old Zou was the biggest obstacle for Chinese boxing.
He didn't compete in the 2009 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Milan but came back to win the 2010 Asian Games.
In 2011 he won his third straight World Amateur Boxing Championships.
Read more about this topic: Zou Shiming
Famous quotes containing the words amateur and/or career:
“I have been reporting club meetings for four years and I am tired of hearing reviews of the books I was brought up on. I am tired of amateur performances at occasions announced to be for purposes either of enjoyment or improvement. I am tired of suffering under the pretense of acquiring culture. I am tired of hearing the word “culture” used so wantonly. I am tired of essays that let no guilty author escape quotation.”
—Josephine Woodward, U.S. author. As quoted in Everyone Was Brave, ch. 3, by William L. O’Neill (1969)
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—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)