McConnell: Boxing on Par with Other Sports at YOG

(ATR) The IOC Sporting Director Kit McConnell says boxers at Buenos Aires 2018 have had a tournament that "has been equal to other sports".

Boxing is under the close watch of the IOC at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, as the federation tries to get back in good graces ahead of its upcoming congress in Moscow.

Payments from the IOC to the International Boxing Association (AIBA) have been cut off since December 2017 due to governance concerns. There has also only been working level contact between the two sides since then. The sport’s place on the program for Tokyo 2020 is also at risk.

To quell IOC concerns, AIBA has added different levels of scrutiny and evaluation to YOG judging and refereeing. AIBA leadership has taken the additional step of removing itself from any engagement on the field of play during competition.

"The most important thing here is that the event was conducted with full integrity and credibility and the athlete experience was the same as in any other sport and I think that’s been delivered so far," McConnell said today. "For us, the focus on the next couple of days is completing a boxing competition for the athletes is the ultimate [one possible] at their level."

McConnell will visit the boxing venue today for the first time during the YOG. He would not say if the IOC has held discussions about how it could hold a boxing tournament in Tokyo 2020 without the administration of AIBA.

Such a possibility was floated by the IOC Executive Board before the YOG if relations with AIBA continue to deteriorate.

Paris Program Has Hard Cap

Should the IOC add new sports to the 2024 Olympic Program in Paris, the entire Games will have an athlete quota of 10,500.

McConnell said that achieving a reduction in athlete quotas to that number is "realistic, important and achievable". Discussions with the 28 sports on the main Olympic program about reductions in quotas will take place now through the end of the Tokyo Olympics.

He likened the exercise to fitting together a jigsaw, where the IOC will potentially be adding new sports, then figuring out how to get the total number of athletes to 10,500. At Tokyo the 28 main Olympic sports will fit in that 10,500 quota, with the five new sports adding an additional 591 athletes.

Any sport that joins the Paris program will have to add "value to the Olympic program and the host city," according to McConnell. New sports looking to join for Paris 2024 must submit bids in the coming months, before the IOC Executive Board recommends any choices to the IOC Session in June 2019.

Then any sport included in Paris that is included in Tokyo will be reviewed again after the 2020 Olympics. McConnell called the two-phased process "deliberate" to allow for more time to decide quotas for each sport, and review sports that will be showcased in Tokyo.

Dakar Program Finalized Soon

The sport program for the Dakar 2022 Youth Olympic Games could be finalized in the next six months, and McConnell expects all 28 Olympic sports to feature in some regard.

"Our goal is we will adapt to the venues [in Dakar], but equally the goal is to have a form of all the 28 [sports] if possible; it has to have credibility in terms of venue and type of event it is," McConnell said of the Dakar sports program. "The discussions we’ve had with the federations have been very positive and we’re very keen to be a part of this moving forward."

McConnell said that the IOC will also look into different mixed team and mixed gender events that featured in Buenos Aires for future editions. Whether such events will be at the next YOG or just at the international federation level is to be decided. Whatever is decided, the disciplines must have "credibility," be easily explained, and advance athlete development.

"That has been really important for us to see in those mixed gender events, the breaking down of those genders has been really important for us and bringing even better gender equality on the field of play," McConnell said.

"What we see here is that a number of events have come through development pathways outside the Youth Olympic Games, [but also] this is a stepping stone to other games be it regional or continental."

Coverage of the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games is made possible in part by BA 2018

Written by Aaron Bauer in Buenos Aires

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