MOSCOW, May 15. /TASS/. Russian boxers still have an opportunity of participating in the European qualifiers for the 2024 Summer Olympics in France, Tatyana Kiriyenko, the secretary general of the Russian Boxing Federation (RBF), told TASS on Monday.
"So far, it’s a mystery shrouded in darkness for us," she said in response about Russian boxers’ participation in the 2023 European Games in the Polish cities of Krakow and Malopolska between June 21 and July 22.
"We are currently working with the Russian Sports Ministry and the Russian Olympic Committee, coming up with a tactical plan," Kiriyenko stated. "Next, there will be the [upcoming] European Games in Poland."
"The IOC has given us the green light to participate in the tournament under a neutral status, but Polish organizers stated earlier that boxers from Russia and Belarus would not participate," she continued.
"We are dealing with this situation and hope that everything will work out," she continued. "We hope that our athletes will travel to the European Games. But we also have a plan if something goes wrong."
Earlier in the day, Eduard Kravtsov, chairman of the RBF Coaching Council, announced to TASS that Russian boxers had been invited to compete in the European qualifying tournaments for the upcoming Summer Olympics in France.
"Invitations keep coming. Reportedly, [Albert] Batyrgaziyev has received an invitation to fight in the under-57 kg weight category and [Vsevolod] Shumakov received an invitation as well," Kravtsov stated. "I believe that an invitation was also extended to [2020 Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Muslim] Gadzhimagomedov. The invitations going out are for the qualifiers [in Europe]."
However, Kravtsov noted that it would be much harder for Russian boxers to qualify for the upcoming Olympics via the Asian Games, when compared to qualifiers in Europe, since the level of competition in Asia is much higher.
The 2023 Asian Games are scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, China, from September 23 to October 8 this year. The event was initially scheduled to be held last year at the same venue, but was rescheduled to a later date due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential for it to spread among people traveling to mainland China.
Ban on Russian boxers from international tournaments
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations in February 2022 to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from participating in all continental and global tournaments.
In early March 2022, the International Boxing Association (IBA) barred boxers representing Russia from participating in international sports events. However, on October 5, 2022, the IBA Board of Directors reversed the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes competing in international competitions.
After Tokyo’s turn hosting the Olympic flame at the 2020 Summer Games, it will travel next to Paris for the Summer Games in 2024, and then to Los Angeles in 2028. In 2021, at the 138th IOC session in Tokyo, Brisbane, Australia, was selected to host the 2032 Summer Olympic Games.
At its session on January 25, 2023, the IOC Executive Board put forward a proposal to permit individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments but only under certain conditions.
Specifically, athletes from the two countries should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status. Russia and Belarus were also banned from participating in international team events.
Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) President Stanislav Pozdnyakov called these recommendations absolutely unacceptable as they would lead to a split in Russian sports. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov slammed the IOC’s recommendations as discriminatory.