Lausanne, Dec 7 (IANS): The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday discussed and gave final touches to the delivery model for the Paris 2024 Olympic boxing competition and Olympic qualifiers, opening up an increased number of qualification opportunities in comparison to Tokyo 2020.
The Executive Board of the IOC discussed the Olympic qualification system for boxing for 2024 designed by the IOC in close collaboration with boxing experts.
The EB on Tuesday decided that the two extra qualification events will be held after the completion of regional competitions to give boxers another clinch to bag quota places.
The "Paris 2024 Boxing Event Regulations" for the qualification tournaments and the Olympic Games are due to be published as early as possible in 2023, the IOC said in a statement on Tuesday.
The IOC will be conducting the boxing competitions at the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 and thus also the qualification programme, just like it did for the Tokyo 2020 Games after it suspended the recognition of the International Boxing Association due to concerns over its governance, lack of transparency financial matters and allegations of mismanagement of refereeing and judging during competitions.
"The new qualification system was approved by the IOC EB in September and is based on direct qualification through selected competitions, including the use of regional multisport events as Olympic boxing qualification tournaments," the IOC said.
"Following the continental phase of the quota place allocation, two world qualification tournaments are planned to be held in 2024, with the goal of providing a balance in terms of the geographical opportunity to qualify for the Olympic Games Paris 2024," it said.
On Tuesday, it noted that the Olympic qualification system focuses on achieving a fair process for all NOCs -- with the same number of qualification events available to their boxers, regardless of weight category; an increased number of qualification opportunities in comparison to Tokyo 2020; reviewing the quota place distribution per weight category in comparison to the International Boxing Association (IBA)'s proposal, and reviewing the quota place distribution per qualification tournament in comparison to IBA's proposal.
The IOC also announced that testing at the Olympic qualification tournaments will be carried out in addition to IBA's existing anti-doping programme. Anti-doping tests at qualification tournaments will be done in close collaboration with the International Testing Agency (ITA), which conducts the tests at the Olympic Games.