Vietnamese Boxing has no chance to participate in the 2028 Olympics

We are facing the prospect of not having the opportunity to participate in boxing at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics (USA) and this is force majeure.

Vietnam Boxing has two female athletes participating in the 2024 Olympics, Vo Thi Kim Anh and Ha Thi Linh. Photo: NGUYEN NHU

Boxing dropped from 2028 Olympics

The Los Angeles (USA) 2028 Olympic Organizing Committee has announced the list of sports that are expected to be held and do not include boxing and breaking dance (street dancing). This means that Vietnamese sports, along with many countries that have had boxing athletes participating in the Olympics, will not have the opportunity to participate in this sport in 2028. Historically, Vietnamese boxing first officially qualified for the Olympics at the 2020 Tokyo (Japan) Olympics with two boxers Nguyen Thi Tam and Nguyen Van Duong. At the recent 2024 Paris (France) Olympics, we had Vo Thi Kim Anh and Ha Thi Linh officially qualified to compete.

Women's boxing was introduced to the Olympics in 2012, starting with the London Olympics. Men's events were held before that. Boxing at the Olympics currently has 6 women's weight classes (from 50kg to 75kg) and 7 men's weight classes (from 51kg to over 92kg).

Boxing is one of the martial arts sports that Vietnam's high-performance sports are interested in, with investment in each roadmap. "We also have preliminary information that boxing is not yet on the Olympic competition program in 2028", Mr. Dam Cong Dien, head of the boxing department (Department of Sports and Physical Training), discussed.

At the executive board meeting of the Asian Boxing Federation on August 31, the President of the Asian Boxing Federation sent an official document to the Boxing Federations of member countries to affirm that he will work with members to lobby and persuade the organizing committee of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics (USA) to consider including boxing in the official list. However, experts believe that the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics (USA) Organizing Committee has soon released a list of 36 sports in the planned program, so changing the decision is not easy. Before the 2024 Paris Olympics (France), the host France did not approve karate to compete and despite opinions from the World Karate Federation and Asian Karate, the final decision was still no.

Meanwhile, there were predictions that weightlifting might be absent from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics (USA), however the US Organizing Committee continued to include this sport in the competition program.

Vietnamese Boxing still has the goal of ASIAD 20

Two athletes Vo Thi Kim Anh and Ha Thi Linh returned to Vietnam from the 2024 Paris Olympics (France) and have returned to normal training with members of the Vietnamese boxing team at the National Sports Training Center in Hanoi.

The results of the 2024 Paris Olympics are in the past. Now, the Vietnamese boxing team is looking to the future, starting a professional plan for the 33rd SEA Games and the 20th ASIAD.

Through research, each national sports team with key players participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics (France) has made a report and analyzed the professional reality before the leaders of the Department of Sports and Physical Training. Boxing has its own analysis reports. According to Mr. Dam Cong Dien, a number of force building programs for the next two important arenas in 2025 and 2026 are being built and focused on to achieve results as set out.

The 20th Asian Games in Japan will be held in 2026. Vietnamese boxing won a bronze medal at the 19th Asian Games held last year in Hangzhou (China). If we focus on investing in people in the right weight class and have good preparation, we predict that women's boxing has a good chance of changing the medal color at the 20th Asian Games.

MINH CHIEN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/boxing-viet-nam-het-co-hoi-du-olympic-2028-post756723.html