Women's Boxing: The Changing Face of Sport at the Olympic Games

Since the inception of the Games, women have never been allowed to participate in Olympic boxing...until now.  

The historic decision of the International Olympic Committee to introduce women��s boxing into the Olympic Summer Games schedule for 2012 is, no doubt, a positive move towards furthering gender equality in sport.  Such a move is arguably reflective of improvements in gender equality in the sporting community as a whole.

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WOMEN��S OLYMPIC BOXING

The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee agreed to the introduction of three women��s events in the 212 Olympic Games. The current 11 men��s boxing events will be replaced by 10 men��s and three women��s events, representing an additional two boxing events on the programme. The total number of boxers remains unchanged.

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The decision was based on recognition that women��s boxing has made substantial progress in universality and technical quality of athletes since the Executive Board of the IOC last met to consider the discipline in 2005.  

In the 2012 Games, there will be space for a total of 36 female boxers to compete (compared to a total number of 250 male boxers). This figure, though yet to be officially confirmed, would ensure that the host nation is represented in nearly half of the 13 Olympic categories – 10 for men and three for women.  In Beijing, boxing was the only sport on the Olympic programme that women were not allowed to compete in.  

Last year, eight British boxers qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, winning one gold medal and two bronzes, the best performance at the Games by GB boxers in 52 years. In addition, many more British boxers might fight their way into the Olympic tournament by performing well in qualifying competitions.

The earmarking of six automatic places for the hosts should ensure that at least one and more likely two of those places will be allocated to female boxers. In fact, with nearly three years to go before the London games, British medal prospects look particularly bright in what will undoubtedly be a landmark women��s boxing competition. For example, bantamweight Nicola Adams recently won a silver medal at the World Championships in China, and light welterweight Natasha Jonas also sits high in the world rankings.

 
FIND OUT MORE

British Boxing Board of Control

www.bbbofc.com/  

Amateur Boxing Association of England

www.abae.co.uk

CREDITS

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