Five-time world champion and torchbearer of Indian women’s boxing – Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom will not be featuring in the Indian contingent heading towards Rio de Janeiro for the Summer Olympics this year.
Chairman of the AIBA ad hoc committee, Mr Kishen Narsi, today, confirmed the aforementioned before shedding light on the reason behind the International Olympic Committee’s verdict. In an ironic manner, IOC’s ruling has been influenced by India’s prominently successful outings in the two previous editions of the Games - namely Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
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As per IOC’s latest policy, only the nations who have not had more than eight boxers participating in the last two Olympics are eligible to receive the wildcard entry for one of their pugilists. With five male boxers having competed in Beijing in 2008 and London 2012 seeing eight representatives from India which included bronze medallist ‘Magnificent Mary’ herself, Indian hopes were dashed on learning of the consequent dismissal of Mary Kom from the Rio Olympics.
A direct route to the 2016 Olympics for Mary had been shut off last month when she fell to Germany’s Azize Nimani in the second round of the final qualification event held in the Kazakh capital of Astana. Ever since, the flyweight boxer had her Rio 2016 aspirations pinned on a probable wildcard entry given the support she possessed and the Indian Olympic Association’s plea towards the higher authorities to grant the last undecided slot to the 33-year-old.
With Mary’s exclusion confirmed, it is now out in the open that not a single female boxer from India will be appearing in the 2016 Olympic Games in August this year.
