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EPISODE: Episode 18
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. Watch TalkinFight weekdays at 12, 4, 7, and 8:30pm EST on YouTube or LIVE at talkinfight.com/live @Olympic @IOC Media
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Transcribed:
Hello talking fight fans around the world thanks for joining us for yet another episode featuring christian from the friday night panel, where he and i both discussed the olympics and what’s happening with respect to boxing right now.
I don’t know you’re going to fill me in christian.
What’S going on, as always as always grandma as we know we’re waiting right now on the new playbooks for the uh for the tokyo 2020 olympics, so japan’s kayode news agency, citing unnamed sources, said that now athletes and staff are going to have to be tested twice Within 96 hours before leaving home and they’re also going to be tested once they arrive in japan now we know that this is an update from the last uh playbook.
That said, athletes and people headed to japan for the games.
We’Re gon na have to provide a single test 72 hours prior to leaving uh for japan for tokyo.
So this is the first uh first of the upgrades that we’re seeing the first thing that we’re seeing is they’re stepping up um.
However, the playbook for athletes is due to be updated tomorrow, with playbooks for media and others to be unveiled on friday.
A final edition of the playbook is going to be published in june, so either tomorrow or possibly thursday, depending on what time tomorrow, they actually release that.
I will definitely have a look through and i’ll.
Let you guys know what updates we can expect from the athletes.
Uh perspective from the last playbook i’ll, keep you guys posted on that one uh now in a bit of an update, though uh on a local story here, mandy bujold and uh her uh olympic prospects at this point in time, with the clock now ticking down, manchester United’S tokyo olympic dream: it is now coming down to a pending decision by the international olympic committee this week that could determine her fate.
Now we covered some of this last week, so a lot of you guys will be uh.
Remember will remember this bujold.
Who is one of canada’s most successful boxers with two pan american titles as well as 11? National championships has now secured legal representation in the fight to qualify for the tokyo olympics.
So said this is the final round.
For me, i’ve got to go all in this.
Is how i want it my career on a hind with an olympic medal on my neck? I have to do whatever i can to get there to fill that dream and then retire.
So right now, bujold is not in line to compete in tokyo.
She was supposed to get the chance to qualify at the game to sorry for the games at the uh argentina qualifier next month, but due to the pandemic, has forced the cancellation for the america’s qualifier for the second time and we’ll get second consecutive year.
And second time in a row with no competitions now on the schedule, the ioc has to come up with a revised ranking system and are using just three events: uh from between 2018 and 2019 to determine the four available spots in bujold’s weight class.
So during the 11-month time frame that the ioc used as its ranking system bujold gave birth to her daughter and was not competing.
We covered a bit more about that a little bit last week and we did a full write up on that.
So you can take a look at that.
If anyone is interested now she was ranked second before her maternity leave and now at this point she could miss the olympics completely because of her pregnancy and the pandemic.
Of course, bujold stated plainly for us: this is about gender equality based on the olympic charter.
The ioc are the ones overseeing this qualification process, and this is an opportunity for the ioc to step up now.
Bujold has hired silvie rodriguez, a friend and 28 year old corporate litigator at torrey’s llp in toronto.
To help him fight now rodrigo said we are asking for a rule that takes into consideration women who may have been pregnant or postpartum during that time frame from a legal standpoint, it goes to the fundamental principles of olympism.
The ioc in recent years have has been promoting women in sports and inequity.
Now rodrigo delivered their argument to the ioc last week and said that the timeline is tight.
She expects the ioc to validate as she expects the ioc to validate its qualification process.
Rules by friday rodrigo said they are prepared to go to arbitration, should the ioc not rule in their favor, but she said that they do remain optimistic at this point, that the organization will make the right decision and give bujold a spot at the tokyo olympics.
Rodrigo said that, should the ioc also rule against them, it would send a very different message from the ideals of the ioc stating it sends the wrong signal.
It sends signal to the signal to female athletes that pregnancy must have a negative effect on their performance.
Adding this is even this is the even the playing field for women who were or are pregnant, that they shouldn’t have to decide between having a baby or staying in the game.
Boudreau turns 34 just two days after the opening ceremonies and was in peak condition.
Uh preparing to enter to earn her spot at the tokyo games and she is planning to retire after these olympics saying i want to show my daughter to never give up and to keep pushing.
I know the ioc is trying to find a way to qualify athletes, but it’s hard when it’s all being cancelled you you need to have the best ass, best athletes in order to keep the integrity of the games.
So here we find ourselves.
Graham, you and i talked a little bit about this – the other day about uh female boxers being sidelined uh because of this uh, because, unfortunately, for a lot of female athletes, this is obviously not just uh limited to boxing.
You know your best years, uh from an athletic standpoint when you’re in your peak physical prime also happen to be.
You know when you’re in your physical prime, for uh, for childbearing child birth and for the rigors that the body and stresses that the body goes through during both pregnancy and childbirth.
So it’s it’s sad that we’re seeing boxers getting discounted because of this, especially seeing as she’s, obviously back in fighting shape now and to discount a boxer because they’ve gone through the uh.
You know through childbirth, saying that they’re not able to get back to that.
You know world-class standing is just a silly, is a silly thought, so i’m hoping that they’re going to uh we’re going to see a ruling in her favor and not just in uh mandy, pugil’s favor, but also just as a broad spectrum uh reform for what we’re Seeing uh for female athletes as part of the uh part of the qualification process right across the board.
Now we’ve had some people uh chiming in here saying: hey, don’t get pregnant, you know in an olympic year or coming up to an olympics, but the simple fact is: you shouldn’t have to make that decision and they should make the road back after fraternity or maternity Or postpartum a little bit easier for these athletes.
A great example right here about a a boxer who uh has come back from maternity and is doing great things right now, just to kind of you know, put a fine point on this and we hope the best.
Obviously, for mandy, but looking to our friends across the pond here, british boxer, charlie davidson, has made a stunning return to uh competitive uh action after reaching the finals of the belgrade winter tournament.
Now, after last competing more than 14 months ago, at the boxing road to tokyo, london qualifier in march of last year, charlie davidson secured three unanimous wins in quick succession at the tournament in serbia.
So the mother of three has uh flown to belgrade with the 13 strong great britain boxing squad ahead of the rescheduled tokyo 2020 olympics and european uh boxing qualifier, which is scheduled for paris in june fingers crossed uh.
Now, after unanimous points wins over france’s gloria de meldia, yulia ponsovich and russia’s russia’s alexandra kulashova, the flyweight has guaranteed minimally a silver medal and a place in the 51 kilogram final.
So davidson, uh tweeted three fights on the bounce.
Three unanimous wins good for her.
So after sealing her place in the finals against nina rodinovic of serbia, a team great britain, spokesperson, uh hailed the victories for super mom charlie after she made three wins in his many days on her return to competitive action, the spokesman said the mum of three who Only returned to the sport after a seven year, hiatus in 2019 last boxed at the boxing road to tokyo, london qualifier, where she won her opening bout, meaning that she’s only one victory away from securing her place on the plane to tokyo.
When that tournament resumes in june once again, fingers crossed for that one other than dave other than super mum.
Our friends uh across the pond had a bit of a mixed bag during semi-final action at the belgrade.
The winners tournament carolyn dubois, unfortunately lost to chile’s valentina busta bustamante in the 60 kilogram category, shavon clark lost to russia’s timor gamatzoff in the 91 kilogram category.
Uh frazier clark is headed to the finals, though, with a win against kazakhstan’s nurlands in the 91 plus category gala yaffi suffered loss to kyrgyzstan’s as that yusina love in the 52 kilogram class.
Peter mcgrail lost the kyrgyzstan’s alibeck s back in the 57 kilogram category.
Not one, but both mccormick brothers unfortunately suffered losses to uh russia’s arthur, solenokov and uh for for luke that is, and serbia’s abasov for pat, respectively and before i was able to get this out.
Big t did chime in closing things out.
Ben whittaker, though, will be fighting for gold after his win against montenegro’s peter marcich.
Yes, big t i was gon na get to that, for those of you who don’t know friend of the show big t is uh is ben whittaker’s father.
So we like to make sure we keep tabs on ben whenever we can so we’ll, be seeing uh we’ll be seeing a bit more from him and we’re looking forward to the goal too, of hopefully a gold medal for ben and then maybe we can get big T to actually uh pop onto the show and say a few words we’ll see what we can find, but uh yeah, that’s! What’S going on in serbia right now and that’s what’s going on around the rings from an amateur standpoint, the last few days so hopefully uh again we’re gon na see big things from big uh from ben whittaker, and hopefully we’re also going to get a chance to See big things coming up from mandy bujold come tokyo in july and, like i said, i will keep you guys updated as the playbooks uh do update later this week, yeah, i think mandy’s fighting for all women’s rights in this respect, and it was interesting when we Spoke to a professional fighter on friday, miyamoto out of uh, new zealand she’s, a mother of five children, and i believe she’s undefeated right now.
So so you know: if mia can do it on a professional level, i’m pretty sure manny can do it on an amateur level and win that gold.
If she’s allowed to compete – and i think that’s the decision that needs to be made – i think by the olympic committee – and not only on her behalf but on all women behalf charlie davidson mother of three headed to uh – into gold medal action in serbia.
Right now, too, yep absolutely great example, and thanks very much for that update christian.
I appreciate it and uh.
Yes, i’m sure ben will win will win only gold, not silver, so that’s good to know, uh and i’m sure there’s many other.
Is there another tournament after this one by the way, like um yeah? Well? Well, here, here’s well at this point: they’re, not olympic qualifiers anymore, other than the actual and the qualifier coming up in june in paris, theoretically uh, but there are other aiba sponsor events uh.
Theoretically – and i was gon na touch on this tomorrow – uh because i was hoping for uh further updates, so we will touch on this tomorrow.
They have the uh in may.
There’S the asian championships are going on so, but those are supposed to be held in new delhi which, if you think things are bad in japan right now, things are off the charts in in new delhi at the moment.
So once again, that’s that’s kind of a bit tenuous right now, but that is another large tournament that was due to take place in may there’s another.
I think tournament taking place in texas in may as well uh, but uh we’ll have to see what which ones go forward and which don’t.
But there are still there’s definitely still boxing happening because remember not everybody qualifies for the olympics, but there still is international competition happening correct after the olympics happened.
Then you know: we’ve got world uh quality world championship, aiba world championships going on then after that we’ll be sliding into uh about in a year’s time.
From now we’ll be looking at birmingham 2021 uh for well actually, next year, birmingham 2022 for the commonwealth games.
You know we keep going, there’s always there’s always going to be amateur boxing, there’s going to be big tournaments coming up so once the olympics are over we’re just going to shift focus you and i uh to aiba world championships.
Commonwealth games pan am games all the big major uh ones where we’re going to see these up-and-comers before they turn pro correct.
Absolutely thanks! Very much christian appreciate it thanks very much for all the viewers out there sending in their comments, much appreciated and we’ll see you tomorrow, we’ll talk about
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