Marc Gargaro: Boxing Trainer to U.S. Olympic Team
It’s been a busy year for Nonantum’s Marc Gargaro, co-owner of Nonantum Boxing Club. This past summer, he got married, had his first child, opened a second Nonantum Boxing Club location in Hingham, and trained the U.S. Elite Men’s Boxing Team at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs to ready them for the World Boxing Championships in Germany.
The U.S. Elite Men’s Boxing Team had an impressive result in Germany, earning two bronze and a silver medal. This is the team that will represent the United States at the Pan American and Olympic Games.
Right before Thanksgiving, U.S. boxing asked Marc back, this time to train the U17/U18 Elite Girls for the World Boxing Championships held in India.
The U.S. Olympic Boxing is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado at the Olympic Development center with a full-time head coach, and another boxing trainer that lives there year round.
Boxers on the U.S. Elite Boxing Teams can live there as well, but most opt to stay where they are in order to work or go to school. They travel to Colorado Springs for a week of intensive training before important boxing tournaments where they represent the United States. Two or three guest coaches are invited to help train for these events.
The schedule is grueling, staring with 6:45 am weigh-ins and continuing for twelve hours. Students, such as the girls U17 and U18, then meet with tutors in a study hall in order to catch up with their classwork.
For Marc, training the U.S. Elite Boxing Team at the Olympic Training Center is the culmination of a decade of producing national level fighters out of his gym here in Newton. He was the New England coach for the Nationals multiple times as well.
He also thinks it’s his willingness to learn and improve as a coach that is getting him return invites to Colorado Springs. At 38 years old, he’s by far the youngest guest coach, and he’s learning the strategy and systems of the Olympic Head Coach Billy Walsh has established to make the team more competitive at the international level.
Looking forward to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, U.S. Boxing is preparing to make a charge. Right now, the U.S. Elite U17/U18 Girls Team are in the final rounds of the World Boxing Championships and will come away with at least two bronze medals. Marc Gargaro is taking back with him lessons of how to train elite boxing athletes able to compete at the highest levels. Expect future Olympians to emerge from Nonantum Boxing Club because while 2017 was a great year for Marc, he’s just getting started.
