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Nowhere to go: Clarence Hill (Photograph by Colin Thompson)<\/p>\n
Bermuda\u2019s first Olympic hero has said he wound up sleeping on the streets after losing his government-owned accommodation during a spell in hospital.<\/p>\n
The revelation from Clarence Hill comes after a video went viral in which the 1976 bronze medal-winner from the Montreal Games can be seen shirtless in Hamilton and fumbling around for his belongings \u2014 triggering widespread condemnation from the online community.<\/p>\n
The housing ministry responded that Mr Hill had agreed to forfeit his tenancy ahead of his time spent in hospital for a life-threatening heart condition<\/a>.<\/p>\n The former heavyweight boxer who fought 20 times as professional in the wake of his history-making feats in Montreal, spoke as his son worked to raise funds with a view to bringing the 74-year-old to England for a better quality of life.<\/p>\n Mr Hill held the distinction as the island\u2019s lone Olympic medal-winner until triathlete Dame Flora Duffy took gold <\/a>in Tokyo in July 2021.<\/p>\n The contrast between the furore that Dame Flora\u2019s accomplishment attracted from the Bermuda Government and cross-sectional community, and the almost non-existent reception for Mr Hill five decades earlier returned as a talking point in the spiralling debate over the boxer\u2019s descent into homelessness.<\/p>\n Mr Hill told The Royal Gazette: \u201cI believe in the Lord and can come through all of this. I am a heavyweight and got through a whole lot of other stuff, so why can\u2019t I make it through this?<\/p>\n \u201cI am trying my hardest and I am not going to quit. I am fighting a ten-round fight, so I am going to get through the whole ten rounds. It\u2019s not easy, but most fights are not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n Jamaka Kamal, Mr Hill\u2019s 48-year-old son who resides in Birmingham in the English West Midlands, is raising money via a GoFundMe<\/a> page online in the hope of getting his father settled in Britain.<\/p>\n He said his father had been \u201cseen around the bus terminal with no shirt, no shoes and no home to return to\u201d.<\/p>\n Clarence Hill in the ring during his heyday (File photograph)<\/p>\n Mr Kamal told the Gazette: \u201cTo me, there\u2019s no reason why he should be homeless. Not Clarence Hill. That shouldn\u2019t be. Our first Olympic medal-winner and nowhere to live? He should not have to worry like this in his elder years.\u201d<\/p>\n He said his father was also dealing with early onset Alzheimer\u2019s, which was having a severe impact on his memory.<\/p>\n \u201cHis mental capacity is affected, and people are not really seeing that,\u201d Mr Kamal said.<\/p>\n Mr Hill, who has been in and out of hospital for several months, believes he heard during his treatment that he had lost accommodation. But Mr Kamal said his father had \u201cprobably forgotten and gone back\u201d to the former residence.<\/p>\n Mr Kamal said his father\u2019s effects were likely in storage.<\/p>\n Jamaka Kamal, the son of Olympic medal-winning boxer Clarence Hill (Photograph supplied)<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI need to get him a plane ticket and make sure he can have a place out here. We can get him registered, get a National Insurance number, and he can get government assistance and be out here with me.\u201d<\/p>\n As of this afternoon, Mr Kamal had raised a little more than \u00a32,500 (about $3,300) towards his goal of \u00a34,000.<\/p>\n A life in the ring<\/p>\n Clarence Hill got an early introduction to boxing when he took refuge at a Young Men\u2019s Christian Association facility in New Jersey.<\/p>\n Growing up in Newark, New Jersey, he also took inspiration from the great Muhammad Ali.<\/p>\n Back in Bermuda, he found stability at the Pembroke Youth Centre, where he was the star pupil of the boxing programme.<\/p>\n He became the island\u2019s dominant heavyweight boxer and featured as the headline act in many of the fight cards held at BAA. His winning streak, including representing the island overseas, put him on track for the 1976 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n Mr Hill had three bouts in Montreal, winning two to secure a podium finish before losing in the right to fight Olympic great Teofilo Stevenson, of Cuba, for the gold medal.<\/p>\n In an entry list of 20, he was given a first-round bye, thus entering the final 16, where he knocked out Parviz Badpa, of Iran, in the third and final round.<\/p>\n In his second bout, Mr Hill beat Belgium\u2019s Rudy Gauwe on points before suffering a points defeat by Mircea Simon, of Romania.<\/p>\n He and American John Tate, who lost in a first-round knockout to Stevenson before becoming a world champion within three years of turning pro, were jointly awarded the bronze medal.<\/p>\n Mr Hill\u2019s attempts to follow a similar course were thwarted, and it was not until 1980 that he joined the paid ranks \u2014 largely fighting out of England.<\/p>\n He won 17 and drew one of his 20 bouts before retiring in 1986 \u2014 the most notable being a nationally televised contest on CBS in 1982 when he challenged top prospect Tony Tubbs in Albuquerque, New Mexico.<\/p>\n Mr Hill dropped the future WBA champion in the very first round, but went on to suffer a defeat by unanimous decision.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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