Johan Linde

Johan Linde (born 27 June 1983 in Adelaide, South Australia) is an Australian amateur boxer of Estonian descent. He represented Australia at the 2012 London Olympic Games in the super heavyweight division and was Australian team captain at the 2013 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

He is now chairperson of the Boxing Australia Athletes Commission and is actively involved in training boxers in South Australia.

Career

Linde started boxing in 2001 and was crowned South Australian heavyweight (91 kg) champion in 2003 and 2004. However, he gave up boxing to pursue tertiary studies at the University of Adelaide in 2005.

After completing two bachelor degrees in economics and accounting at the University of Adelaide, he returned to boxing and in 2010 Linde fought competitively for the first time in six years, moving up to the super heavyweight division (+91 kg). In 2012, he won the Australian super heavyweight title and the Oceania super heavyweight title to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics Games beating the favourite, Tongan Junior Fa, in the final.

Linde lost in the round of 16 at the London Olympics to Chinese super heavyweight Zhilei Zhang, who was the silver medallist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the same weight division. Two months prior, Linde suffered a KO to Anthony Joshua in Lithuania, the only one of his career.

Since then, Linde has not produced the results of 2011 and 2012, losing his first fight to Uzbekistan at the 2013 World boxing championships and failing to win a medal at the 2014 Australian Titles.

Linde has worked in the Government of South Australia since 2009, primarily for the Department of Treasury and Finance.

References