Boxing made its modern Olympic debut in St. Louis at the 1904 Olympic Games. The competitions took place on September 21 and 22, 1904, at a Games that featured seven men's boxing weight classes.
Only 18 boxers entered, all from the United States, making the tournament very different from the international Olympic boxing competitions familiar today. The small field also produced unusual results: competitors could enter more than one weight class, and Oliver Kirk won both bantamweight and featherweight gold.
St. Louis is sometimes confused with Athens, Paris, or London because those cities hosted nearby early Olympic Games. Boxing was not on the program at the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, and it was absent from the 1900 Paris Games. It returned at London 1908, although the 1904 St. Louis tournament remains the sport's Olympic beginning.
A related curiosity is that women's boxing appeared only as a demonstration bout in 1904. Women's boxing did not become a full Olympic medal sport until London 2012.