“Who cares about the rigged sport anyway” - Netizens slam judges' decisions as Lovlina Borgohain loses in Paris 2024 Olympics QF bout
India’s boxing star and Tokyo 2020 bronze medalist Lovlina Borgohain crashed out of the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympics on Sunday (August 4) after losing to China’s Li Qian in the women’s 75 kg quarter-finals by a 4-1 split-decision verdict.
Netizens took to social media to slam the scores provided by the judges, which they perceived to be biased in favor of the top-seeded Chinese pugilist Li Qian.
“Meanwhile Lovlina Borgohain loses in Quarterfinals, misses out on Bronze, but who cares about the rigged sport anyway,” one fan posted on the social media platform X.
Another wrote, “Lovlina once again at the brunt of the judges biasedness for the higher seeded boxer.”
One fan, like many other Olympic watchers, was left perplexed by the scoring system employed by the judges, writing:
“On the other hand, lovlina borgohain has lost to China in the Quarter Finals. The yardstick which judges use to calculate the scores is still the Mystery that remains unsolved :)”
Some fans called out the American judge Shawn Reese for his decisions, with one fan writing:
“Judge 5(USA) was racist. Baaki judges ne sahi vote diye. R2 mein Lovlina did amazing.”
“Lovlina doing much better than I anticipated..Judge 5 from US is clearly watching a different bout - crazy person,” another fan posted.
One fan suggested that European judges would favor Chinese opponents in tournaments due to the geopolitical influence exerted by the country; with one fan posting:
“Not sure if Lovlina will [be] judge[d] honestly. Judge will favours Chinese as China [as it] has huge influence on europian.”
Lovlina Borgohain goes down fighting against top-seeded Li Qian at the Paris 2024 Olympics
Despite being one of India’s top pugilists, Lovlina Borgohain was going into the Paris 2024 Olympics quarter-finals bout as a massive underdog. While Lovlina entered the tournament as the eighth-seeded participant, her opponent on Sunday was the top-seeded boxer who was ranked No. 6 in the women’s middleweight category.
Li Qian came to win on Sunday, and she was on top of Lovlina from the get-go, landing a series of fierce punches to destabilize the Indian fighter. Li never allowed Lovlina even an inch of space and comfortably won the first two rounds to set the tempo of the bout.
The must-win third round was much of the same for Lovlina, who failed to land any meaningful punches on her opponent. As a result, two-time Olympic medalist Li Qian won the bout with a split decision of 4-1 to progress through to the semi-finals of the Paris 2024 Olympics.