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LONDON , 17 May (AP) \u2014 Katie Taylor had Olympic dreams long before she became one of the faces of women\u2019s professional boxing.<\/p>\n
The Irish fighter won a gold medal at the 2012 London Games, setting her on course for a hugely successful pro career.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s worried that future generations won\u2019t get the same chance because of a long-running dispute between Olympic officials and the International Boxing Association. The International Olympic Committee has declined to confirm boxing\u2019s place in the 2028 Los Angeles Games.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be a huge blow to boxing overall, even professional boxing,\u201d Taylor told The Associated Press ahead of her fight against Chantelle Cameron in Dublin on Saturday. \u201cThe biggest incentive for amateur boxers is the Olympics. If they (don\u2019t) have that, I think it might put a lot of people off the sport. It could be a big blow for the sport as a whole really.\u201d<\/p>\n
The impact on women\u2019s boxing could be particularly damaging considering it only made its Olympic debut in 2012.<\/p>\n
Taylor and Claressa Shields have used their Olympic success as a springboard into the pro ranks \u2014 headlining cards, selling out big arenas and garnering more media attention to help push the women\u2019s game into the mainstream.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope they can sort out their issues because the Olympics is a huge part of boxing,\u201d said Taylor, the undefeated and undisputed lightweight champion who will challenge for Cameron\u2019s super-lightweight belts on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The 2024 Paris Olympics isn\u2019t in question \u2014 the IOC plans to run the qualifying and final tournaments like its boxing task force did for the Tokyo Games in 2021.<\/p>\n
The IOC cut ties with the sport\u2019s governing body in 2019 because of concerns about governance and fair judging. It also has distrust about the IBA\u2019s ties to Russia.<\/p>\n
An investigation found that some bouts at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics were fixed by \u201ccomplicit and compliant\u201d referees and judges. In Rio, Ireland\u2019s Michael Conlan accused Russia and the sports governing body of corruption after his bantamweight quarterfinal loss to Vladimir Nikitin.<\/p>\n
In recent weeks, boxing officials in the United States and Britain announced plans to preserve the sport\u2019s place at the Olympics by launching a new federation to rival the IBA, formerly known as AIBA.<\/p>\n
Boxing has been part of every Olympic program but one since 1904, and the IOC has said it still could be added for 2028. Roland Garros, the home of the French Open, is one of the main venues for boxing at next year\u2019s Paris Games.<\/p>\n
Boxing is Ireland\u2019s most-successful Olympic sport. Eighteen of the country\u2019s 35 medals are in boxing.<\/p>\n
In Tokyo, Kellie Anne Harrington became only the second female Irish boxer to win an Olympic medal when she took gold in the lightweight division \u2014 like Taylor did earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cEver since I was a kid, my dream was to win an Olympic gold medal. That\u2019s all I dreamt of,\u201d the 36-year-old Taylor said. \u201cIt\u2019s quite sad that if it does go out … kids are going to grow up without that dream.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON , 17 May (AP) \u2014 Katie Taylor had Olympic dreams long before she became one of the faces of women\u2019s professional boxing. The Irish fighter won a gold medal at the 2012 London Games, setting her on course for a hugely successful pro career. She\u2019s worried that future generations won\u2019t get the same chance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-216418","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}