Tokyo Olympics 2020: Dates, venues announced for boxing qualifiers

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Boxing Task Force has confirmed the names of the host cities, which will hold five qualification events for the 2020 Summer Olympics to be held in Tokyo. There will be a total of four continental qualification tournaments as well as a final global qualifying tournament, as confirmed by the IOC, between February and May 2020. 

The five qualification events are: Asia/Oceania continental tournament (Wuhan, China) between February 3-14; Africa continental tournament (Dakar, Senegal) between February 20-29 at Dakar International Expo Centre, European continental tournament (London, Great Britain) between March 13-23 at Copper Box Arena, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park; America continental tournament (Buenos Aires, Argentina) between March 26 and April 3 at CeNARD high-performance athletics training centre and the final global qualifying event in Paris, France between May 13-24. The tournament venues in Wuhan and Paris will be confirmed in due course of time. 

“The World Qualification Event will give athletes a second chance to qualify and will, therefore, be open only to those boxers who have not yet qualified for the Games,” said IOC in a statement. 

Commenting upon the qualifying events, the Boxing Task Force Chair and IOC Member Mr. Morinari Watanabe said, “The qualification events represent a fair and transparent pathway to the Olympic Games with equal opportunities for all National Olympic Committees.” The Boxing Task Force Group announced the creation of the Athlete Ambassador Group, which aims at providing ‘valuable athlete input and feedback to the Task Force and promote the athlete voice and representation in boxing, for Tokyo 2020 and beyond’. “Everything is being done to provide world-class Qualification Events and to ensure the best possible conditions for the athletes,” Watanabe further stated.  

The Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo will be held between July 24 and August 9 next year. Boxing at the 2020 Olympics will be represented by 186 male boxers and 100 female boxers, as compared to 250 men and 36 women at the 2016 Rio Olympics.