Jim McCourt
# Jim McCourt

James Vincent McCourt (24 January 1944 – 19 June 2023) was an Irish boxer from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

McCourt won a bronze medal for Ireland in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in the lightweight division. He lost a hotly disputed 3–2 decision to Russian Velikton Barannikov in the semi-final. Shortly after the games, McCourt defeated Olympic champion Józef Grudzień of Poland. A year later, he repeated his bronze medal performance at the 1965 European Amateur Boxing Championships in Berlin in the same grade. In 1966, McCourt won a gold medal, representing Northern Ireland, at the Commonwealth Games in Kingston in the Light Welterweight division. McCourt was rated the number one amateur boxer in the world for four years. A master of defence and counter punching, he was inducted in the Irish Amateur Boxing Hall of Fame.

