Sport in Wales played at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, but after no Welsh players were selected for the team they decided to leave the Great Britain team to allow their players greater international exposure. Wales has a strong connection with the sport of boxing, particularly in the South Wales Valleys, with fighters such as Tommy Farr, Freddie Welsh, Jimmy Wilde, Dai Dower and Johnny Owen all competing at the highest level. Joe Calzaghe, born to a Welsh mother and Italian father and raised in Newbridge, retired in 2009 as an unbeaten world champion. Other former world champions include Enzo Maccarinelli, Gavin
Jack Blackburn Joe Louis took the World Heavyweight Championship from Jim Braddock at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois in an eighth-round knockout. Blackburn had trouble with drinking in his later years while training Joe Louis that likely caused the deterioration of his health. In his career, besides his long work with Joe Louis, Blackburn had roles training Light Heavyweight Champion John Henry Lewis, Bantamweight Champion Bud Taylor, as well as Art Lasky, Jackie Fields, Lew Tendler, Sailor Freedman, and Von Porat. While in Philadelphia, Blackburn briefly trained Jersey Joe Walcott. He died on April 24, 1942 of a heart attack while he