International Olympic Committee wants to have boxing at Tokyo Olympics
IOC chief Thomas Bach has said that the committee wants boxing as an Olympic sport and wants to have the competitions in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics next year as well. The IOC chief has also added that organising a sports event is not “rocket science” and they will be able to pull that off.
With all the controversy surrounding the International Boxing Association (AIBA), there is a doubt about the participation of the pugilists in the upcoming Olympics which will be held in Japan’s Tokyo next year. However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) president is of the opinion that if the recognition is withdrawn from the AIBA then an alternative organisation can run the boxing events at the Olympics. The IOC is carrying out an inquiry into the financial and governance matters of the AIBA now.
“We want to have boxing as an Olympic sport and we want to have a boxing competition at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020,” Bach told the Australian Olympic Committee annual general meeting, reported Reuters.
“The question we are confronted with is, who will organise it? Will it be AIBA or will we have to find a different way? This depends on the results of an ongoing inquiry we have into AIBA which is looking at governance, finance, judging and refereeing — it is very, very serious.”
The IOC inquiry is expected to make its recommendations during an executive board meeting in Lausanne on May 22 regarding the AIBA issue. Bach termed boxing as a universal and important Olympic sport during the meeting.
“We want to do this because boxing is important Olympic sport, it is a universal sport, so we want to have boxing on the programme. If the cases arises we would have to make an effort to have it and to have the qualification process. Organising a sports event is not rocket science so I guess we will be able to manage it.”
Bach also spoke about the imbalance in the number of boxing events at the Olympics in the men’s and women’s categories. He has assured that there will be gender equality for boxing in the Olympics, no matter who is organising the events in 2020.
“At a time when we still on speaking terms with AIBA, we had more or less agreed that we will have gender equality in the Olympic competition in Tokyo. You can be assured that whoever organises the Olympic competition, we will insist on this principle of gender equality for boxing,” implied Bach.
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