NEWSLETTER by EUBC President Franco Falcinelli August 2021

TOKYO 2020: an unforgettable Olympics!

For the first time in history, the Olympic Games were postponed, but

Tokyo Games 2020 will remain a bitter experience in the history of Olympic Boxing for many other reasons:

• the exclusion of AIBA from the Olympic Tournament;
• the suspension of the European Qualification Tournament in London which then continued a year later in Paris;
• the cancellation of the World Olympic Qualification Tournament which prevented many good athletes from participating in a well-deserved event;
• the extraordinary sanitary measures which have excluded spectator participation, close friends and fans at the competitions.

On Tuesday 24 August at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium, history repeated itself. A little more than a month after the opening of the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games took possession of the sports facilities with the same atmosphere, but also with the same hope of success.

Managerial and technical analysis of Tokyo Olympic Games 2020

AIBA, in the past, has been accused of making mistakes in the choice of referees, of wide spreading corruption and an absolute lacking of punishment for those who had made mistakes. Well, sincerely speaking, it seems to me that the Tokyo Boxing Games did not differ from many previous editions.

We had too many conflicting judgments in Tokyo, often with diametrically opposed results. Compared to 136 verdicts for “Unanimous Decision” we have 121 “Split Decision”.

These are the results of Boxing Olympic Tournament Tokyo 2020:

5:0 – 136                                      RSC -12

4:1 – 60                                        KO – 4

3:2 – 49                                        WO – 2

3:1 – 4                                         DSQ – 1

4:0 – 6                                          

3:0 – 2

An interesting curious concerns the evaluation of the bouts between men and women. While in males the “Split Decisions” are superior to the “Unanimous Decisions”, in women the opposite happens.

Many Coaches and Team Leaders expressed great perplexity about the correctness of some verdicts. Colombia, France, Spain and other NFs have expressed great confusion about the correctness of some bout results.

Moreover, I would like to highlight three important points:

1. Why was the bout revision and change of verdicts deemed unjust not used? The AIBA rules introduced it starting from 1 July 2021:
2. It was said that to avoid direct responsibility for the appointment of the R&Js, the choice would be made by drawing lots. Unfortunately, luck often rewards even those who are not deserving, while the objective of the IOC Task Force had to be to appoint the most capable and competent.
3. At the Olympic Games 2016 the doubling of R&Js belonging to the same Country was harshly criticized. In Rio the doubling was justified by the fact that 5 Stars R&Js belonged to AIBA and therefore they represented only the International Association and not their own country. In Tokyo ALG, MAR, ARG, USA, CUB, MGL, KAZ, AUS were allowed to be present with two R&Js.        

Has the fundamental principle of neutrality been respected?

Some time ago, IOC President Thomas Bach pleasantly stated that organizing the Olympic Boxing Tournament was not a “rocket science”.

Well, dear President Bach, I hope that today you can evaluate Olympic Boxing differently. Boxing is the most complex discipline of the Olympic sport both in practice and in the evaluation of bouts!

The European boxers are the first in the Continental Ranking!

The brave European boxers have conquered 23 Olympic Medals: 6 gold, 5 silver and 12 bronze medals. Better then Rio where European boxers reached 20 Olympic Medal.

Great Britain and Russia are ahead of all the other European National Federations and rank second and third respectively worldwide after Cuba, which got 4 gold and one bronze medal, maintains the first position also in Tokyo 2020.

A nice surprise is provided by Turkey, which wins a gold and a silver along with Ireland, which got a gold and a bronze, while Bulgaria also celebrates its gold.

Among 25 Federations that have reached the podium, 11 are European, 8 Asian, 3 American, 2 Oceania and 1 Africa.

In Europe, the balance of technical values between males and females is evident: 13 male medals with 8 categories and 10 medals for women with 5 categories.

Schoolboys & Schoolgirls European Championships in Sarajevo

While in Tokyo Olympic boxers came down from the ring to enjoy the success of their memorable deeds, in Sarajevo, the European Schoolboys & Schoolgirls seized the baton to continue their fantastic adventure in the ring until they reach the Olympic podium in the future.

In Sarajevo, 197 boys and 78 girls representing 24 nations competed in 16 and 13 weight categories respectively. The return of Russia and the consistency of Ukraine transformed the European review into an open Russian-Ukrainian championship, where the other nations are left with crumbs. Just read the medal table, with Russia winning 19 golds, 5 silvers and 4 bronze. Off thepodium only in the 60 kg for the match in the quarterfinals between the Russian Korobova, beaten by the Ukrainian Taran. Ukraine following Russia with 7 golds, 9 silvers and 7 bronze, to follow the sharp one of the Czech Republic, which knew it could count on Jlkova (51 kg), which from 2020 dominates the various tournaments and Polednikova (54) more talent, collecting gold and bronze.  

Unfortunately, many Western European Federations had to skip this continental event because they are still in acute phase of the pandemic. Parents and even the Boxing Clubs preferred to avoid contagions.

International Boxing Day 2021

The International Boxing Day was celebrated in Belgrade on August 27 and was a great success. Thanks to the commitment of AIBA President Umar Kremlev and Serbian Boxing Federation President Nenad Borovcanin who was able to involve, together with the National Boxing Federation, even the major Institutions of Serbia, the world boxing movement found cohesion and enthusiasm to face the largest organizational appointment of 2021: the AIBA Men’s World Championships in Belgrade next month.

European Youth Championships 2021 in Montenegro

The Boxing Federation of Montenegro is also preparing the next edition of the European Youth Championships which will take place in Budva from 13 to 24 October 2021 right next to the World Championships in Belgrade.

The Republics of the former Yugoslavia therefore continue their excellent organizational activity at national and international level, demonstrating that the deep roots of Yugoslav boxing have generated a fruitful heritage of continuity which, entrusted to the new ruling class, will bring Olympic boxing back to the glories of the past.

Jacques Rogge died

The entire Olympic Movement deeply mourns the loss of a great friend and a passionate sports fan.

With Jacques Rogge disappears one of the most admired and prepared leaders of the modern Olympic movement.

I had a privilege to know him personally and I appreciated his high moral and managerial qualities and his deep love for the Olympic movement.

Thomas Bach said: “He loved sport above all else and helped to modernize and transform the IOC. 

«Rogge will be remembered in particular for having defended youth sport and for having inaugurated the Youth Olympic Games. He was also a fierce supporter of clean sport and tirelessly fought against the evils of doping”

Road to Olympic Games Paris 2024

In Paris 2024 we want to reoccupy our historic place in the Olympic family. We need to regain the organizational role of the upcoming pre-Olympic events.

We  want to keep the male categories. We cannot decrease them further to favor the increase of the female ones. Respect for “Geneder Equality” cannot be achieved by penalizing male boxers who are the overwhelming majority of our members.

 We can count on the skills and enthusiasm of our National Federations who have prepared and offered unrivalled athletes to the Olympic movement. Champions who have written glorious pages of sport, but also of social and political culture.

Cassius Clay, George Foreman, Floyd Patterson, Nino Benvenuti, Laszlo Papp, Henry Maske, Ray Leonard, Boris Lagutin, Teofilo Stevenson, the brothers Vladimir and Vitali Klitcko, were great protagonists of the Olympic Games and ideological reference for many social and civil battles of the modern era.

AIBA with the new leadership wants to follow the IOC rules in full compliance with the Olympic Charter.

The new AIBA leadership is showing its deep good will to renew the management of AIBA and Continental Boxing Confederations, implementing principles of good governance, transparency, term of office, gender equality, athlete’s representation and also a model role to increase  the prosperity of the National Boxing Federations.

   The current marginalization has caused tremendous confusion and drastically reduced the possibilities for an adequate development of our boxing movement.  Boxing on its turn, as never before, has increased its popularity and its practice as a sport for all.

The people of boxing have understood the lesson. We need a well-deserved rematch!