A top-ranked amateur boxer who hoped to compete for the United States at the 2016 Summer Olympics was killed Tuesday in an industrial accident in Wichita, Kan.
The Wichita Eagle reported that Tony Losey, 22, was sandblasting a tank estimated to weigh 12,000 pounds when the tank unexpectedly shifted position and fell on him. Losey was working as a subcontractor for a steel tank plate fabricator.
"The piece of equipment shifted very suddenly,” Wichita Police Sgt. John Ryan told the paper. "He tried to get out of the way. It was just too heavy. It doesn’t take much once you get that kind of weight moving. Everything shifts out of the way, and it starts sliding."
Lewis Hernandez, who had trained Losey since 2006, said the boxer was scheduled to compete at a qualifying trial in Spokane, Wash. early next year, where a strong showing would have made him eligible to compete in the 2016 Olympic Trials. USA Boxing had Losey ranked third nationally in the 152-pound weight class.
Losey had recently been allowed to return to the ring by a judge after committing a violation of his probation late last year, Hernandez told the paper. Initially, the judge said that Losey could only leave his home to go to work, but reversed that decision. Losey is survived by his fiancee and two daughters.
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