BOXING has always been one of our best prospects for a gold medal in the Olympics but the latest development in the international scene may mean the sport won’t be in the Tokyo Olympics.
I asked an Abap official recently about what’s happening in the sport and he said that it was obvious during the last Asian Games there was more to the anomaly in the judges. One country sent seven fighters and all seven made the finals. The same Abap official told me that no one could really challenge the status quo because to be able to run as president, you have to be a member of the executive committee, which is basically just the same group of guys running the federation.
Judging anomaly was rampant in the Rio Olympics too. It was so blatant that the International Olympic Committee issued a rebuke. It’s not only the judging anomaly that has earned the ire of the IOC but the leadership of Aiba (international federation for boxing).
A few days ago, the IOC criticized interim president Gafur Rakhimov’s candidacy, saying his victory may lead to the removal of boxing from the Tokyo Olympics and that would be a big blow to us.
Well, the Associated Press just reported that he won the election, getting 86 of 134 votes cast and the IOC issued a statement.
“There are issues of grave concern with AIBA regarding judging, finance, and the anti-doping programme, and with governance, including Rakhimov’s election as president.”
The AP report that boxing--and its future in the Olympic program--will be discussed on Nov. 30, giving the new president less than a month to repair his image with the IOC and the US, which has put him in a US Treasury Department sanction list for links to international heroin trafficking.
If you think some of our national sports associations are bad, they are nothing compared to the trouble this international federation is facing.
So what happens now to boxing in the country? I don’t know, I guess we will have to wait if there will be boxing in the Olympics after the Nov. 30 meeting.
I’m just curious though how the Philippines voted in the election, which had to be done manually because, according to the AP, “the test of the electronic voting system resulted to more votes than actual delegates.”
Quite unsurprising from a federation that can’t clean up its judging system in the Olympics.