Boxing at 2024 Paris Olympics: Scoring rules, format and path to medal
The Paris Olympics 2024 starts tomorrow and will witness 329 events across 32 sports and boxing is an important and integral part of it. The sport of boxing was first introduced to the modern-day Olympics back in 1904 and has been a mainstay at the Summer Games, except for the 1912 Stockholm edition as the Swedish law had banned the sport at that time.
The 2012 London Olympics remained witness to the introduction of women's boxing which has now become a celebrated event across the world. In terms of success, the USA is the most successful nation in boxing, having won a mind-boggling 117 medals. Cuba and Great Britain are the other two successful countries having won 78 and 62 medals, respectively.
India, to date, has only won three medals in boxing, all of them being bronze. The first-ever medal was bagged by Vijender Singh back in the 2008 Beijing Games. His legacy was continued by legendary Indian boxer Mary Kom, who achieved the same feat in 2012 at the London Games. The most recent medal was secured by Lovlina Borgohain at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
Notably, Borgohain is also a part of the upcoming Paris Olympics, alongside heavyweight Indian boxers like Nikhat Zareen, a young and confident Nishant Dev, Jaismine Lamboria, Preeti Pawar and Amit Panghal.
Rules of the sport
The boxers fight it out inside a ring. However, the game allows only amateur boxers. Notably, one such amateur boxer made history later on - Muhammad Ali on Cassius Clay. Between 1984 and 2012, boxers were instructed to wear headgear, however, the Rio Games in 2016 abandoned the same. Female boxers, notably, are still required to wear the same.
Speaking of the rules, the boxers need to fight for a certain period, called a 'bout'. A 'bout' in men's boxing is of three rounds of three minutes each. As for women's boxing, it's four rounds of two minutes each. At the end of every round, the judge determines the winner and awards them 10 points.
The loser of the round doesn't leave empty-handed as they too are provided points between seven and nine, depending on their performance in that specific round. After the end of the bout, the total points from all the rounds are added to determine the victor of the match.
Format and path to medal
There are a lot of disciplines in boxing, divided as per the weight category. But the format is the same for all. The competition starts with prelims in the round of 32 games, followed by the round of 16, quarter-final, semi-final, and the final match.