Women’s Boxing Added to 2012 Olympics
Women's boxing added to Olympics from 2012
After the Internation Olympic Committee received requests from 17 International Sports Federations to modify events or change quotas and formats they have made their decision about what changes to allow.
The Executive Board (EB) announced on 13 August what the changes will be.
Of most interest to me is the addition of women’s boxing. The EB agreed to add three women’s events to the 2012 London Olympic boxing program. The men’s program has been reduced from 11 to 10 events. Overall the total number of boxers will remain the same.
The addition of the women’s boxing was last considered in 2005. The reason it got up this time is that they recognise the universality of the sport and that the quality of the athletes competing has improved.
I have to admit this is one sport I probably won’t be watching in 2012, well maybe the curiousity factor will get me… If women decide that is something they want to do then that is great but I think boxing overall should not be an Olympic sport even though I have enjoyed following the careers of Mike Tyson or Evander Hollyfield and of course Ali.
In other changes approved by the EB we will see the Canoe Sprint drop the men’s C2 500m in favor of a women’s K1 200m race. The remaining three men’s 500m sprint races have been replaced by much shorter 200m sprints.
Modern Pentathlon will see a new combined run-shoot format. I don’t even know why this is in the Olympics. To me it is a dated sport but who am I to care.
Handball sees the removal of placement matches from their tournament.
The wrestling, swimming and cycling federations requested changes involving new events. These have not been approved at this stage as in order to bring in new events they need to replace current events as well as maintaining the current total athlete participation numbers. The events would also be favourably looked at if the participation of women at the Olympic games is increased.
The EB will make a decision in December at its meeting in Lausanne about the introduction of mixed doubles. In order to make this happen the International Tennis Federation will need to guarantee that the top ranked singles players would be able to participate.
Before all of the above items were considered by the EB the Olympic Programme Commission analysed the requests based on established criteria. They then forwarded their findings to the EB. Sports that have universal appeal and provide gender equity and youth appeal are more likely to receive favourable outcomes.
What do you think about the introduction of women’s boxing into the Olympics? Leave your comment below.
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