Family will help Amir keep feet on the ground

Would he still, as he had predicted, remain an amateur for the next four years until the Beijing Olympics? Or might he succumb to the very real temptations of the big money in professional sport and make himself a mint?

Seventeen-year-old Amir is undoubtedly a highly marketable "commodity". His name is now known to this nation and many others. He is, it has been argued rather patronisingly, the acceptable face of Islam, and his skills likened to a young Muhammed Ali.

There are now many people who would like a piece of the likeable youngster from Heaton. So, the question is inevitably being asked: can he keep his feet firmly on the ground and the Olympic dream alive?

Yes, he certainly can. And the answer lies right here, in Bolton, in his home and his background.

Throughout his Athens campaign - and long before that from when Amir first visited a boxing gym at the age of eight and showed an interest in putting on the gloves - his family have been there for him. Not just as a presence but active supporters.

In Athens, Amir's father Shah in his now familiar Union Flag waistcoat, mother Falak, his brother and sisters, uncles, cousins and friends have been so happily vocal that no one could either miss or fail to share their enthusiasm.

And they will close ranks in just the same way should anything threaten the sensible way forward for their Amir.

This Pakistani family is typically close and supportive. They worship regularly at the Madina Mosque in St George's Road and are plainly proud, both of their culture and of their British nationality.

Nor has Amir's precocious talent been seen as solely the way forward. He is a student at Bolton Community College, studying for a National Diploma in Sports Development and Fitness to give him a qualification for a career, however life pans out in the boxing ring.

Visit the Bolton Lads and Girls Club where his early boxing interest was honed and where he put in some of the gruelling hours of training necessary for this toughest of sports. Not only is there tremendous pride in Amir's achievements but dozens of youngsters want to be just like him.

They want to represent their country and bring as much glory as they can back to their home town. Some may ultimately see their sport as a way to fame and riches, but it is a hellishly hard route. Better join a boyband and impress Simon Cowell if that's all it is.

No. What this is really about is the untarnished pursuit of excellence. To be the best. To aim for the purest form of sporting competition man managed to devise: the Olympics.

Mick Jelley, the local coach who nurtured Amir's early talent as an 11-year-old will be advising him, too, and hoping, as the British ABA coach Terry Edwards will, that Amir will wait, improve, gain experience. That more lies ahead of him as an amateur now than as a professional.

Boxing legend Evander Holyfield, at ringside for the final, was just as forthcoming. "The age of 21 is a good time for him to become a professional," he insisted, warning the youngster of the guile and cunning of the older boxing pros that lie in wait for the young boxer stepping away from amateur status.

And when Amir, on a triumphal return to Bolton, tries to resume his normal life post silver medal, another test lies ahead.

After the plaudits, the interviews, the praise, the acclaim, the wonderful high of being an Olympian, he needs the same clear-headed, honest ambition he had before Britain and the rest of the world learned his name.

For he is not only a remarkable boxer but a son, and an older brother to young Haroon - another Khan with burgeoning boxing skills. And we know that his down-to-earth background and his friends will, hopefully, now help him settle on his future path.

And, of course, perhaps the most powerful argument for giving himself another chance at Olympic greatness in four years' time - or the next four years after that - is simple.

Amir is still hungry for that gold medal. And the smart money is definitely on just that in Beijing, 2008.