POSTED: Thursday August 13th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Changes Made to Boxing, Canoe and Modern Pentathlon For 2012 Olympic Games Program in London

New events for the 2012 Olympic Games in women's boxing, canoe sprint and modern pentathlon

BERLIN, GERMANY—The IOC Executive Board approved new events for the 2012 Olympic Games in women’s boxing, canoe sprint and modern pentathlon in its continual review of the sports program of the Olympic Games.

Women’s Boxing

The Executive Board agreed to the introduction of three women’s events. The current 11 men’s boxing events will be replaced by 10 men’s and three women’s events, representing an additional two boxing events on the program. The total number of boxers remains unchanged. The decision was a recognition that women’s boxing has made substantial progress in universality and technical quality of the athletes since the discipline was last considered in 2005.

Boxing was previously the only summer sport on the Olympic docket without a female counterpart.

“We are thrilled that the IOC Executive Committee has voted to add women’s boxing events to the 2012 Olympic Program. The ‘yes’ vote means that female boxers will now be able to share in the dream of standing on the world’s most prestigious sporting podium,” said USA Boxing Women’s Task Force Chair and AIBA Women’s Commission member Christy Halbert. “It’s a historic event, marking the first time that all of the summer Olympic sports will have female participants. The Olympic Games, will, from now on, truly showcase the world’s best talent.”

Female boxers will compete at three weights in London, flyweight (106 lbs-112 lbs), lightweight (123 lbs-132 lbs) and middleweight (152 lbs-165 pounds), with 12 boxers boxing in each of three divisions. “The addition of women’s boxing means that we finally have a truly universal Olympic Games,” AIBA President Dr. Chung-Kuo Wu said. “Nevertheless, we will strive to ensure a very successful first Olympic Games for women in London in order that the number of women participating in future Olympic Games may increase.”

Halbert echoes President Wu’s sentiment on the future growth of women’s boxing within the Olympic Games. “With the announcement of only a small amount of weight categories for women, the work toward fairness continues,” Halbert added. “This is a first step toward recognizing that women boxers are an important addition to the Olympic family. The 2012 Olympics will undoubtedly send a strong and inspiring message that all athletes are valued in Olympic sports, regardless of their gender.”

The addition of the 36 female boxers will necessitate the removal of one weight category in men’s competition, meaning there will be only 10 men’s weight classes. “USA Boxing is extremely excited for all of the female boxers across the country that have been training and preparing for this day, but we also realize that it has an unfortunate impact on the men’s program,” commented USA Boxing Acting Executive Director Mike Martino. “This change will require a great deal of planning by the national office with the addition of female boxers and the unfortunate reduction of male boxers who will enjoy the opportunity to compete in the Olympic Games, but we will ensure that all our athletes are prepared for competition at the highest level.”

Canoe Sprint

The Executive Board agreed to the request made by the International Canoe Federation (ICF) for the replacement of men’s C2 500m with women’s K1 200m. The EB also agreed to replace the remaining three men’s 500m sprint events with 200m sprint events.

The ICF President Jose Perurena said that “These changes to the Olympic Program represent an evolution for Canoeing as a sport.  It has been the vision of the ICF Board to make suitable changes to keep our sport relevant and exciting for the youth and general public in the coming years. We look forward to seeing the new format being put in use in London 2012.’ 

The 1000 meter distances will remain for men as the traditional ‘blue ribbon’ events and 500 meter for the women. There will be more women represented at the 2012 Games in canoeing and the 200 meter kayaking for men will provide a more watchable, more entertaining format presenting some nail-biting finishes.

The ICF has 330 places in Canoe Sprint and Canoe Slalom with a total of 16 medals at the Olympic Games.

Modern Pentathlon

The Executive Board agreed to the implementation of a new combined run-shoot format for the five sport event that combines fencing, equestrian, swimming, shooting and running. 

Modern Pentathlete Eli Bremer commented about about the change.  “Our sport will combine the run and shoot which presents both a challenge and opportunity. It is a challenge because I have trained slow fire shooting for so long, and it’s a little hard to teach an old dog new tricks. The opportunity comes from the fact that slow fire shooting has historically been my weakest sport, and the new format would give me a fresh start to my worst event.”

The format of the change will resemble the Olympic winter sport of Biathlon, which combines cross country skiing and shooting in a timed competition.

Other conditional changes approved by the IOC Executive Board include the following:

Team Handball

The removal of placement matches in the handball tournament was agreed.

Wrestling, Swimming, Cycling
The three Federations (FILA, FINA, and UCI respectively) submitted requests for new events. The EB informed them that this could happen, especially if the new events increase the participation of women at the Games and on condition that they replace events already on the program. Additionally, current events can be replaced with new ones only if the total number of athletes is maintained.

Tennis - Mixed Doubles

Furthermore, the EB agreed to consider the inclusion of a mixed doubles event pending guarantees from the International Tennis Federation that the top players in the singles rankings would be able to participate. The EB will make a decision on the issue at its December meeting in Lausanne. 

The IOC received requests from 17 International Sports Federations for modifications of events, quotas and competition formats for the Olympic Games in London in 2012 by the deadline of October 2008.

The IOC Olympic Program Commission analyzed all of the requests based on established criteria, and submitted its findings to the Executive Board. The key positive factors included whether the changes would increase universality, gender equity and youth appeal, and in general add value to the Games. Other considerations included the cost of infrastructure, and the impact on the overall quota and the number of events.

All modifications of events, quotas or competition format for the Olympic Games in London 2012 are provisional, and will be reviewed for the program of the 2016 Olympic Games after the Games in London.

The sports on the program for any edition of the Games are decided no later than at the IOC Session electing the host city for that edition of the Games. Disciplines and events can be added but sports are included when the city is named to host the Games.

For more information contact Bob Condron , USOC Communications, 719 866-4529; Julie Goldsticker, USA Boxing,  719 440-1050 ; Bill Kellick, USA Pentathlon,  719 232-7792  ; David Yarbrough, USA Canoe/Kayak, 704 348-4330.  This press release can be found on http://usocpressbox.org.

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Keywords · USOC · IOC · London 2012 Olympic Games · in women's boxing · canoe sprint · modern pentathlon

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