Emilio Correa Vaillant[a] (21 March 1953 – 11 March 2024) was a Cuban amateur boxer who won welterweight gold at the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Munich, West Germany.[1] He is not to be confused with his middleweight namesake, who is actually his son.
Inspired by his compatriots Roberto Caminero "Chocolatico" Pérez, Enrique Regüeiferos, Félix Betancourt, and Rolando Garbey who also hail from Santiago de Cuba, he started boxing in 1966.
At the PanAm Games in Cali, Colombia (1971) he won gold against American Larry Carlisle, but it was not until he beat Betancourt at the national championships in 1972 that he was able to secure his ticket to the Olympics. There he knocked out the defending champion Manfred Wolke of East Germany in the round of sixteen and defeated the rest on points to win Cuba's first welterweight boxing gold.
Correa died on 11 March 2024, at the age of 70.[2]
1972 Olympic results
Below is the record of Emilio Correa, a Cuban welterweight boxer who competed at the 1972 Munich Olympics:
1904: 135–145 lb (61.2–65.8 kg) · 1920–1936: 135–147 lb (61.2–66.7 kg) · 1948: 62–67 kg · 1952–2000: 63.5–67 kg · 2004–2012: 64–69 kg · 2016: 65–69 kg · 2020–2024: 64–69 kg · 2024–: 64–71 kg