Boxing Road To Paris Qualification Series Ends: 249 Boxers To Compete In The 2024 Olympic Games

Some 249 boxers – 125 male and 124 female – will compete in the Olympic Games Paris 2024 boxing tournament. This was reported by the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit (PBU) to the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Executive Board (EB), as part of an update on the qualification pathway and the Olympic boxing tournament. The last quota places available were won at the second World Qualifying Tournament that came to a close in Bangkok, Thailand, earlier this month.

Fifty-one of the remaining Paris 2024 Olympic quota places (23 for women and 28 for men) were allocated across 13 Olympic boxing weight categories (6 for women and 7 for men) in the Indoor Stadium in Bangkok. Like all the boxing qualifiers, the event was organised under the authority of the IOC Paris 2024 Boxing Unit (PBU), which will also oversee the Olympic tournament at Paris 2024. The PBU has put in place all the necessary measures to ensure the integrity of the boxing tournaments for all boxers.

Over 2,000 boxers from 172 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and the Refugee Olympic Team, and Individual Neutral Athletes took part in the Boxing Road to Paris qualification series, totalling 2,115 bouts across seven tournaments in five continents over two years, with 239 quota places awarded. Nine Universality Places are to be confirmed at a later stage, and one additional place will be allocated to the IOC Refugee Olympic Team, completing the lineup of 249 boxers who will compete in the Paris 2024 boxing tournament.

At the end of the qualification phase, IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell commented: “The final qualification step in Bangkok was a truly global event, with 578 athletes from 131 NOCs and the Refugee Team competing for the last quota places to qualify for Paris 2024.”

“The boxing qualification process has always put athletes first. Tournaments have been held across all continents since last year, with exciting sports competitions involving hundreds of athletes. We have delivered on our commitment to transparency, innovation and credibility. Throughout the qualification process, some 200 international technical officials were also involved, implementing educational paths, including in-person seminars, online workshops and courses.”

Among the athletes already qualified is refugee Cindy Ngamba, who secured a spot at Paris 2024 during the first World Qualification Tournament in March this year. The boxer will be part of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC’s) Refugee Olympic Team, composed of 36 athletes representing the more-than 100 million displaced people around the world.

The qualification pathway started in 2023, with boxing qualifier tournaments organised as part of the European Games, the Asian Games, the Pan-American Games and the Pacific Games, and serving as continental qualification stages, together with an ad-hoc African qualifier in Dakar. It then continued in 2024 with two World Qualification Tournaments – in Busto Arsizio, Italy, and Bangkok, Thailand – eventually providing every athlete with up to three different qualification opportunities.

The Olympic Games Paris 2024 boxing tournament will run from 27 July until 10 August and will include 13 different weight categories (7 men’s and 6 women’s). The tournament will be hosted in two venues. The preliminary phases and the first semi-finals will be held at the North Paris Arena from 27 July to 4 August, while the final phases of the tournament, including all gold medal matches, will take place at the Roland-Garros Stadium from 6 to 10 August. Find the full tournament schedule here.

The Paris 2024 Boxing Unit (PBU) is an ad-hoc unit created by the IOC Executive Board and tasked with organising and ensuring the delivery of the Olympic Boxing Qualifying Tournaments and the boxing competition at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

This decision followed the suspension of Olympic recognition of the International Boxing Association (IBA) by the IOC Session in June 2019, with recognition subsequently withdrawn by the IOC Session in June 2023, and the announcement in June 2022 that the IBA would not run the Olympic Boxing Qualifying Tournaments or the boxing competition at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

All the results, drawsheets, updates and photos of the Boxing Road to Paris Qualifying Tournaments can be found on the Athlete365 Boxing Corner website at boxing.athlete365.org. Source AIPS Media