Paris Olympics: Boxing events for male reduced, changes also in weightlifting and shooting

Aiming to achieve gender equality, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has increased the number of boxing events for women in the 2024 Paris Olympics from five to six as per a revised list.

While the preceding Tokyo Games had eight events for men and five for women, in Paris there will be seven events for the male pugilists and six for the female, according to an update shared by Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Narinder Batra. The new categories for men are 51kg, 57kg, 63.5kg, 71kg, 80kg, 92kg and +92kg.

While the new women's weight classes include 50kg, 54kg, 57kg, 60kg, 75kg. The changes are in line with the trend of increasing women's weight classes as the Rio Olympics only had three, which was increased by two for the Tokyo Games.

This development additionally means that Tokyo bronze medallist pugilist Lovlina Borgohain's 69kg welterweight category has also been slashed and the Assamese boxer will have no option but to switch weight categories.

In shooting, the trap mixed team event has been replaced with the skeet mixed team event.

As far as weightlifting is concerned, as PTI reported last December the number of events has come down to 10 (5 men and 5 women) from 14 events in Tokyo.

The competition schedule for the Paris Olympic Games was unveiled on Friday, after being approved by the IOC executive board.

In total 32 sports are set to be contested across 19 days of action, with 329 events due to take place across 762 sessions. Action is scheduled to begin on July 24, two days before the Opening Ceremony is due to be held.