The International Olympic Committee added the event to the program on Thursday during a meeting of the executive board.
“It’s long overdue,” said Carl Kosnar, Managing Partner of The Kosnar Group, franchise development consultants for LA BOXING Franchise Corporation. IOC president Jacques Rogge added. “The sport of women’s boxing has progressed a lot, a tremendous amount, in the last five years. It was about time to include it in the Olympic Games.”
Female boxers will compete in three weight classes, with 12 competitors each in flyweight, lightweight and middleweight. To make room for the 36 boxers, one of the 11 men ‘s classes will be dropped.
“We made an internal adjustment… to keep the quota,” international boxing federation president C.K. Wu said. “This is a very important guideline by the IOC. (If) you want to increase the quota, it’s not easy.”
The IOC has a limit of 286 boxers in the Olympics, so only 250 men will be allowed to compete in London. Still, the men will fight for 10 medals while the women compete for three. More.
