188 athletes already qualified for the Paris 2024 boxing tournament
A total of 188 athletes from 56 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) have now secured their quota place for the Paris 2024 Olympic tournament following the first World Qualifying Tournament in Busto Arsizio, Italy. The second, and last, Boxing World Qualifying Tournament, which is scheduled to take place from 25 May to 2 June in Bangkok, Thailand, will be a final opportunity for boxers to qualify for this summer’s Olympic Games. This update was part of the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit (PBU)’s update to the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Executive Board (EB), which also discussed boxing at future editions of the Olympic Games.
The Paris 2024 qualifying tournaments were organised under the authority of the PBU, an ad-hoc unit created by the IOC EB and tasked with organising and ensuring the delivery of the Olympic Boxing Qualifying Tournaments and the Boxing Competition at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, following the suspension and the subsequent withdrawal of recognition of the International Boxing Association (IBA) by the IOC Session.
Speaking at the press conference that followed the IOC EB meeting, IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell said: “The IOC EB made it clear, once again, that this must be the last time that such a process can be undertaken by the IOC. Following the decision by the IOC Session last year, the inclusion of boxing in the LA28 Olympic programme is on hold and not confirmed. If there is no boxing body supported and driven by the National Federations, we will not be in a position to include boxing in the Olympic programme.
“So it’s now up to the National Federations to drive this change and to work to create a body that we can work in partnership with, because we cannot move forward with this current situation.
“The IOC Session in Mumbai in 2023 also made it clear that the IBA will not be involved in the organisation of the boxing tournament at LA28, should boxing be included in the sports programme.”
Road to Paris 2024: boxing qualifying tournaments
In all, 49 quota places (21 women and 28 men) were allocated at the first Boxing World Qualifying Tournament in Busto Arsizio (Italy), which took place from 3 to 11 March 2024. One of these was secured by refugee athlete Cindy Ngamba, who is among the 70 Refugee Athlete Scholarship-holders supported by Olympic Solidarity.
The tournament was one of the largest boxing tournaments ever, with almost 600 athletes competing for a spot at the upcoming Olympic Games across 13 weight categories. It served as a crucial step on the Boxing Road to Paris 2024, following the continental qualification phase staged throughout 2023.
The last chance for boxers to get a ticket for Paris 2024 will be the second World Qualifying Tournament, which will be held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 25 May to 2 June. More than 500 athletes are expected to compete for the 51 quota places that will be allocated. In line with the Boxing Qualification System for the Olympic Games Paris 2024, only those NOCs which have not yet qualified an athlete in a specific weight category via the respective continental qualification event are allowed to enter one athlete per weight category.
All the results, drawsheets, updates and photos of the Boxing Road to Paris 1st World Qualifying Tournament can be found on the Athlete365 Boxing Corner website at boxing.athlete365.org.