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International Olympic Committee: 289 boxers to compete at 2020 Olympics in Tokyo

The IOC will be doing its best to achieve the gender equality for the Olympic boxing competitions in the future, according to a sports official

© AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

LAUSANNE, January 10. /TASS/. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Friday the final number of male and female boxers allowed to take part in the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.

The organization of the boxing tournament in Tokyo is managed by a special IOC body, led by Morinari Watanabe, an IOC member and the chair of the ad-hoc Boxing Task Force Group.

Speaking at the IOC session in Switzerland’s Lausanne on Friday, Watanabe announced that the sport of boxing at the Olympics in Tokyo would be represented by 189 male and 100 female boxers (compared to 250 men and 36 women at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro).

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Watanabe also added that the IOC would be doing its best to achieve the gender equality for the Olympic boxing competitions in the future.

The 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo will be held between July 24 and August 9 and the participants of the Olympic boxing competition in Japan will be determined by five boxing qualification events.

The IOC said in a statement last year that the five Qualification Events are: Asia/Oceania continental tournament (Wuhan, China, on February 3-14, 2020); Africa continental tournament (Dakar, Senegal, February 20-29, 2020); European continental tournament (London, Great Britain, March 13-23, 2020); America continental event (Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 26-April 3, 2020) and the final World Qualification Event in Paris, France, on May 13-24, 2020.

On November 30, 2018, the IOC halted all planning for the 2020 Olympic boxing competitions in Tokyo. That decision followed an investigation into activities of the International Boxing Association (AIBA).

The IOC claimed at that time that the organization’s financial operations, management and ethics raised suspicions. The IOC also voiced its concern over Gafur Rakhimov’s appointment to the post of the president of AIBA, claiming the boxing official from Uzbekistan had been targeted by the US Treasury Department and was suspected of connections with an international criminal network.

The AIBA Executive Committee announced on March 23, 2019 its decision to appoint Mohamed Moustahsane of Morocco to the post of the AIBA Interim President in place of Rakhimov.

Last June, the IOC ruled at its 134th session in Lausanne to strip the world’s governing boxing body AIBA of its Olympic status, but also made a decision to keep the sport of boxing on the program of the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.

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The IOC Executive Board proposed to organize a boxing program for the Olympics in Japan composed of 13 weight categories, eight for men and five for women (compared to 10 for men and 3 for women at Rio 2016).

The confirmed weight categories for men’s events include: Fly (48kg to 52kg); Feather (52kg to 57kg); Light (57kg to 63kg); Welter (63kg to 69kg); Middle (69kg to 75kg); Light Heavy (75kg to 81kg); Heavy (81kg to 91kg) and Super Heavy (91kg to over-91kg).

The approved five weight categories in women’s boxing events at the 2020 Olympics are: Fly (48kg to 51kg); Feather (54kg to 57kg); Light (57kg to 60kg); Welter (64kg to 69kg) and Middle (69kg to 75kg).

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