Joseph M'Bouroukounda

Joseph "Joe" M'Bouroukounda (7 September 1938 – 1 October 2017) was a Gabonese boxer. He competed for Gabon at the 1972 Summer Olympics in the men's featherweight event, becoming the first Gabonese Olympian.

Joseph M'Bouroukounda

Personal information
Full name	Joseph M'Bouroukounda
Nationality	Gabonese
Born	(1938-09-07)7 September 1938 Fernand-Vaz, Gabon
Died	1 October 2017(2017-10-01) (aged 79) Libreville, Gabon
Sport
Sport	Boxing

Biography

Joseph "Joe" M'Bouroukounda was born on 7 September 1938 to an ethnic Shira Christian family in the village of Fernand-Vaz, in what was then French Equatorial Africa. He then moved to Brazzaville in his late teens for his studies. There, he started boxing. He then moved to France around 1960 to study art and continued the sport, winning regional titles near Paris. He then moved back to Gabon, settling in Libreville.^[1] M'Bouroukounda competed for Gabon at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, becoming the first Gabonese athlete to compete at an Olympic Games. In the first round of the men's featherweight event on 27 August he was defeated by Ruedi Vogel of Switzerland.^[2] Sometime after, he retired from the sport but remained active as a coach. He also served as the president of the Gabonese Boxing Federation from 1975 to 1978 and 1985. Outside of sport, he worked as an art teacher in Libreville until his retirement. In old age, he went blind and his memory deteriorated until his death on 25 September 2017 in Libreville at the age of 79. His grand-nephew, Yannick Mitoumba, represented Gabon at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.^[1]