Charles Elmore
SPORTS WRITING NON-DEADLINE
Palm Beach Post

It would have been easy to forget Elijah Fenwick and Emiliano Valdez, two Pahokee, Fla., boxers who met with horrible fates within days of each other in January 2000.

Charles Elmore remembered. His reporting on their stories gave Palm Beach Post readers a groundbreaking account of Fenwick's death in the ring, the coma Valdez has yet to come out of, and the lack of precautions taken to ensure the safety of boxers.

Elmore's reporting culminated in the Post's page one story, "Fighting to the death." It took readers away from the glamour that surrounds major fights and showed them a harsh world an hour from their homes where boxers risk their dreams and lives.

Elmore built this account without the luxury of a library of clippings or the report of a blue-ribbon commission. He found shortcomings in state law and the actions of regulatory agencies, and disclosed the insurance problems that the fighters and their families faced. Best of all, he let readers empathize with and remember Fenwick and Valdez.

A native of Titusville, Fla., Elmore graduated magna cum laude with honors in English from the University of the South, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, in 1985. Born in Titusville, Fla., Elmore graduated magna cum laude with honors in English from the University of the South, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, in 1985.

He was a Business News writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Palm Beach Post. He also has served as Tallahassee bureau chief and as an investigative reporter in Sports for the Post. Elmore was a member of the Cox Olympics team that covered the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

"What drew me to the story was the desperation of fighters to make it out of the sugar fields," Elmore said. "What I did not expect to discover was how few safety regulations exist and how little accountability there is if someone dies in the name of entertainment or athletic glory."