Women’s Boxing Wins 2012 Approval

Women’s boxing has been added to the London 2012 programme after the International Olympic Committee voted on a host of recommended changes put forward by Olympic sports.

Three women’s weight classes will be added to the Olympic programme for 2012 Games in London, with one of the 11 men’s classes dropped to make room.

‘Women’s boxing has come on a tremendous amount in the last five years and it was time to include them,’ said IOC president Jacques Rogge.

Women will fight at flyweight (48-51kg), lightweight (56-60kg) and middleweight (69-75kg).

Women’s boxing came close to being included at the 2008 Beijing Games but the IOC ruled it would not offer added value to the Olympic programme.

Fears were that the sport was not competitive in enough countries, which could lead to potentially dangerous mismatches.

However participation has since boomed with 120 international federations having female boxers. There are now nearly 600 registered female boxers in England, up from 50 in 2005.

In all, 17 sports submitted applications for changes to their programmes for the London 2012 Olympics. The IOC’s recommendations were:

Canoe sprint – all men’s 500m events will be shortened to 200m to make them ‘more spectacular’; men’s canoe double 500m to be replaced by women’s kayak single (K1) 200m.

Handball – all placement matches below the bronze-medal play-off will be removed.

Modern Pentathlon – the new combined run/shoot format has been included.

Tennis – a mixed doubles event will be included, subject to confirmation from the International Tennis Federation that top singles players will take part.

Wrestling, Swimming, Cycling – all want new events, which will be allowed only if they replace current events and do not increase the number of athletes.

Final decisions on details will be made at the IOC Executive Board’s December meeting in Lausanne.