Ghanaian boxer Clement “Ike” Quartey made history when he became the country’s first Olympic medallist and the first black African to win an Olympic medal. Ghana competed at the Olympics for the first time as an independent nation at the 1960 Roma Games, after the British colony of the Gold Coast had participated at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Ghana sent a small delegation of athletes to take part in track & field and boxing at the Roma Games, with Quartey being one of their six boxers to compete. He boxed in the light-welterweight class where he defeated Mohamed Boubekeur (MAR), Khalid Al-Karkhi (IRQ), Kim Deuk-Bong (KOR), and Marian Kasprzyk (POL) to make it to the final. Quartey then faced Bohumil Němeček of Czechoslovakia but lost on the judges’ decision, therefore winning silver. His performance remained the best performance by Ghana at the Olympics through the 2024 Paris Games.
Two years later Quartey went one better to win gold at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia when he beat Scottish boxer Dick McTaggart. Quartey later lived in England with him dying in London in November 2024 at the age of 86. His half-brother Ike Quartey was also a noted boxer who was a former WBA Welterweight champion.
Ghana