Australia will have to wait another four years for a chance to win a first Olympic boxing gold medal after Charlie Senior and Caitlin Parker both lost semi-finals at Roland Garros on Thursday night. But the two bronze medals won at the 2024 Games still represent the equal-best return for an Australian team, tying the haul at the 1960 Games in Rome.

Senior went down to IBA world champion boxer Uzbekistani Abdumalik Khalokov in the men’s featherweight division in a unanimous decision. The 22-year-old can consider himself unlucky, after an even second round was given to his opponent by four of the five judges.

Parker’s women’s middleweight bout against Chinese fighter Li Qian was even closer, and the Australian took the first round according to all five judges. But the Tokyo silver medallist came out swinging in the second and was given the nod, setting the stage for a decisive final round the judges ultimately awarded to Li.

With no third-place fights in Olympic boxing, both Australians still leave Paris with bronze. Parker’s medal is the first boxing medal by an Australian woman. “I said I was going to go to war, and I did,” she said afterwards. “I left everything out there, and the game plan didn’t go as I wanted. But I’m proud of myself for having gotten where I’ve gotten, for making history for Australian boxing.”

Parker dominated the first round and landed shots in the second, but the judges had it all square going into the third. “I did think that I was getting the clearer shots, and it came to me as a little bit of a shock when she they said it was even coming into the third and I was like, ‘OK, here we go’.”

She said she fell into Li’s wrestle in the third, but paid credit to her opponent, who now has a chance to add to her haul of bronze in Rio and silver in Tokyo in the final against Panama’s Atheyna Bylon, who beat the refugee team’s Cindy Ngamba in a split decision.

Senior said he was happy with his performance against the swift, controlled Khalokov. “To be out there with the best and putting on a performance like that, it’s amazing,” he said. The English-born West Australian performed his trademark backflip after the bout, simultaneously with his opponent. “Going out, putting on a performance and then finishing off with a bang with Abdumalik, I can’t complain, really. It’s disappointing, but I can put on a show, and that’s happy.”

The two defeats end the Paris campaign for Australia’s largest ever boxing team. Although the elusive gold medal was not forthcoming, Parker said the team is on the up. “Harry [Garside] started it last time [in Tokyo with a bronze]. This time we came back with two medals. Next time, we’re going to come back with more and more. Australian boxing, we’re going to be like the swimming.”

Due to governance issues there are fears that boxing may be jettisoned from the Olympic program for LA 2028. Parker said there’s “no way” it can be removed. “It’s one of the oldest Olympic sports, see the crowd that’s here,” she said. “I just hope that the powers that be make it happen.”