OLYMPIC QUESTION
Japanese fighters afraid their Tokyo 2020 Games could go up in smoke
Japanese boxers cross fingers for Games
Yudai Shigeoka has long dreamed of becoming a world boxing champion, but a decision that could see the sport excluded from the 2020 Olympics might deal his hopes a knockout blow.
The International Olympic Committee said last month it was suspending preparations for boxing at the Tokyo 2020 Games over governance concerns, leaving Japanese boxers in limbo.
“All of us have been practising for the Tokyo Olympics,” said the 21-year-old after an evening training session at the Takushoku University gym in the Tokyo suburb of Hachioji.
“Honestly, it’ll be shocking for boxers if a dream that is right in front of us just disappears.”
The IOC took the decision over concerns about the sport’s troubled governing body, the International Boxing Association (Aiba), which is now under investigation by the Olympic committee.
IOC president Thomas Bach declined to promise that boxing would be part of the 2020 Games, though he pledged at a Tokyo press conference to “make all efforts to protect the athletes, as we always do”.
Japan’s boxing federation is taking the issue seriously, with its president warning of “major damage” to the boxing world if the sport is excluded from the 2020 Games.
“The number of boxing athletes could decline because of this,” president Sadanobu Uchida said.
The federation has warned its coaches to pay close attention to the decision’s effect on athletes, fearing they may become demoralised and lose motivation.
They have also collected more than 450,000 signatures on a petition asking the IOC to keep the sport in the Olympics. “We hope boxing tournaments will be held. I have faith they will be,” said Uchida.
The IOC’s final decision on whether to include boxing in the 2020 programme is not expected until June next year. —