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EPISODE: Episode 26
Join us on our on-going exploration of the Olympics to be held in Tokyo 2021, featuring Christian from the Friday Night Panel, and the route to the ring.
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Transcribed:
Hello there boxing fans around the world.
Thank you once again for joining us on talking fight for another episode, featuring christian from the friday night panel, who’s actually busy researching for tonight’s friday night panel uh.
But right now we’re yeah.
We have a few tidbits lined up with respect to the olympics, taking place in tokyo this july and when i say tidbits i believe i mean tidbits, there’s not there’s not a ton going on today, uh, but not that that’s a bad thing when it comes to The olympics these days, sometimes no news – is the actual olympic games themselves right now going on the grand prix usti mad laban 51st edition is currently going on in the czech republic, and this is one of the highlights on the international calendar uh two of the two Middle eight uh, finally, iba women’s boxing championships, the next as well as wales, as lauren price, are both going to be present at this uh tournament as well.
Aiba world champion uh, sofiane, oluma, the bronze, medalist or urdena.
Bat zinbatar are both of the big names in uh the men’s competition and both boxers are going to be in the lightweight category and the grand prix and their encounter is one of the most anticipated contests of the is the biggest uh international competition in the czech Republic and returns to the calendar now after a two-year hiatus uh due to the coven 19 pandemic.
Now the roots of this competition uh go back to uh and before the czech republic during uh it was czechoslovakia and the tournament itself does have strong uh brand recognition within the national federations.
Female boxers uh can compete in six categories at this tournament, while the men were going to be competing in over eight different weight classes.
Uh competition is being held with strict safety measures and covet 19 protocols in order to hopefully uh mitigate any new coronavirus cases.
In the czech republic, the first edition of this grand prix was held back in 1968 and some boxing stars uh some three-time olympic champion uh, two uh three-time olympic games, felix savone and tia philo uh stevenson, russia’s duo as two-time olympic champion, oleg satov and another olympic Games winner former aipa world champion mr alexander, their lebsiac won so female boxers started competing in this event.
For the first time at the grand prix and the 2010 edition the competition, the clock boxers uh and have who have decided to travel.
I’M sorry i’m having some computer issues here, guys.
Give me one quick second here there we go sorry there we go and we’re back.
So this has a long tradition and over the last few years it’s really started gaining momentum, starting with the 2018 edition where cuba, the netherlands, germany and uh host czech republic took home gold medals, and that was the 49th edition three years ago really started to see This starting to build bigger and bigger now the grand prix achieved a new milestone when the competition celebrated its 50th edition in 2019 uh, which means at this point the event is one of the oldest uh continuously running tournaments in europe.
All together, 17 finals were held 2019 edition and among europe’s best female boxers netherlands world champion business.
Both won gold medals at uh that event two years ago, participating nations in this year’s grand prix, uh, austria, republicans, germany, hungary, italy, mongolia, netherlands, polka spain, sweden, switzerland, ukraine and, of course, wales, so that that uh, that’s going on right now and that’s going to run Through to do the ninth, so we’re going to be starting to see quarter final and uh starting, i believe tomorrow and then, as we move further through the weekend, we’ll see the finals coming up and we’ll try to see if we can’t find a nice wrap up For you guys on monday, for that one now, looking a little bit at the actual prominently mandy boujov and the issues that she’s been having in her attempt to qualify or at least to change the ioc’s opinion on who should be allowed to qualify for the olympic Games and it’s worth remembering that you know as much as we’re having a bit of a hard time with this box as ad hoc boxing task force, that’s been put in uh put into place for our sport, we’re not the only ones at this olympic games that Are really having kind of been put to the screws on how it is that we’re actually qualifying for this? And you know it’s not just the boxers like mandy google, who are you know, their dreams are in limbo at this point in time.
So we’ll take a little bit just around the games in general here uh.
So, for example, a couple of years ago, nick suriano he’s a u.
s wrestler put his life on hold to chase his olympic dream.
Now a national collegiate champion in wrestling seriano took a year off from competing uh sorry a year off from uh competing for rutgers to compare to prepare for the 2020 summer games in tokyo.
Now, after those games were postponed for a year because of the coronavirus, surya uh suryano doubled down skipping a second year of college and moving from his home from phoenix meeting to phoenix story from his home in new jersey.
In order to join a special training camp.
For eight months he thought a little beside obtaining his health and claiming a place on the u.
s team at the olympic isles.
Now many considered him to be a favorite in the 125 pound class and he says that he was at the healthiest point of his entire life going into this, but only days before the start of the trial on april 2nd in texas, a nasal bob changed everything For him, duriana had tested for virus before in a plane for fort worth texas and then tested positive shortly after he arrived and as such, he never got to take to the mat his olympic dreams years in the making.
For obvious reasons now the pandemic has been wreaking havoc with sports in general and with you know, the olympic games, in particular for more than a year now lives and careers, have been upended, reimagined and remade, but with the games now scheduled to start in less than Three months time that space to adapt has disappeared, and you know some of these virus-related obstacles are now likely to be insurmountable for some athletes.
In march, eight fencers from six different countries tested positive at a qualifying competition in budapest, hungary, where they were placed in quarantine and then prohibited from competing uh.
Early last month, a judo team from india had to withdraw from a qualifying competition in kyrgyzstan.
After two of the athletes from the squad tested, positive and officials had to cancel the entirety of the and pan american uh canoe sprint olympic qualifying event, as that was supposed to take place last month in brazil, which is one of the leading virus hot spots globally.
At the moment, olympic births for the region now are likely to be determined by rankings and performances from the 2019 world championships, so not totally dissimilar to what we’re seeing in boxing using past rankings to determine that so for athletes.
In each case, the training time competition opportunities to communication points for the tokyo games, some still don’t know precisely how or if for that matter, they’re going to be able to book their place at the olympics, which are going to be star 23rd of july.
Olympic athletes have long dealt with pressure to stay healthy and avoid injuries during the crucial weeks and months leading up to the games, which, for many of them do represent a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
But with the complications of the coronavirus, unlike something like uh, you know, muscle, strain or typical illness definitely isn’t a solution here for an infected athlete, and this is also possibly for healthy athletes who are deemed to be close contacts or so even a brush with the Virus can present an insurmountable obstacle when it comes to catching it to the games.
So well forbid, when you can positive virus test, is a you know, that’s a pretty simple matter.
It’S pretty straightforward deciding to eliminate a person deemed to have been in close contact with an infected individual.
It can get a little bit more complicated, so to be con to be considered a close contact.
Currently, an athlete has to have been within close contact to an infected person for more than 15 minutes during the 24 hour per period, while that or during a 48-hour period before upon potassium, came back or before the onset of symptoms.
So it doesn’t matter if that close contact uh occurs indoors or outdoors, which means that not only you know, traditions but also, you know our rides.
You know the transfer from europe and now become high stake interactions.
Uh health officer appointed uh for the trials for the wrestling trials we just talked about uh would decide when to are a competitor and athletes would then have an opportunity to appeal that to a broader panel.
However, this was a little different here.
How they were running this particular one athletes who had received vaccinations essentially got to get a free, get a jail free card here.
So the rules for close contract follow the center for disease control and prevention guidelines, which stipulate that a person who is two weeks past receiving their second dose of either the fisa or modern vaccine or the single dose of the junk and does not need to quarantine.
Now they didn’t make any mention of the astrazeneca vaccine, um, just those ones so far, but they’re saying you do not for that comment, you did not do quarantine now.
These rules differ from the ones currently in place of the olympics.
This summer and again i do say currently because this could change in the next iteration of the playbooks or in the sport specific information that they’re due to publish in june for the actual olympic games, but under current stipulations.
Those rules differ from the ones we’ve got at the moment.
Organizers in japan announced on wednesday that athletes who are deemed close contacts will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Protocols that officials released did not mention how a completed vaccination series would affect the evaluation process, though, athletes who have been vaccinated uh still do have to follow the same day-to-day rules as those who have not been vaccinated, and that’s going to be, including at events as Well, as in the olympic village, and then the dormitories and things of that nature, soriano, though, said that he did not get this chance uh at his position, as he’s only 20 and in their in time for his olympics, uh he’s not decided if he will try Uh try or not to qualify for paris 2024.
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You know.
There’S little money in uh in there is in boxing actually no guarantees uh.
He could injury between now and then or a better wrestler may come along and just simply knock him out of his uh position.
But it’s something worth bearing in mind as we sit there and we kind of shake our fingers at the ioc and how they’re treating our boxers or you know we are boxers.
We should have the best of everything with this ad hoc task force and the ioc is scrambling not only to try to find a way to qualify.
You know, or at this point our north american boxers as we’re not going to have a qualifying and then, since we’re not going to have the world qualifying event, so you know we can again.
We can, you know, shake our fists and wag our fingers at the ioc, but we’re just one of a series of headaches that these guys are going through and trying to find ways to qualify to get them to these games safely and to get them competing in These games sorry dry throat, not just a scram, it’s not just us much of it like that.
Sometimes it’s not just.
I know well for someone who had a few tidbits.
You certainly had a few tidbits for you.
Graham, i usually find something for you fair enough.
Thanks very much uh we’ll see you tonight on the friday night panel absolutely i’ll be here: cheers
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