Female Boxing’s Lack of Equality in Olympics
Essay title: Female Boxing’s Lack of Equality in Olympics
Equality has a Ring to It
The pinnacle of any amateur athletes success is measured in the Olympic
Stadium. Upon the conclusion of the 2004 Athens Olympics, the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board met to review its program and make
changes for the upcoming Summer Games. The committee discussed changes for
events within the 28 existing sports, as well as options to add new disciplines.
The board rejected the International Amateur Boxing Associations (AIBAs)
proposal to add a womens boxing program to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
IOC sports director, Kelly Fairweather said the decision was taken on a “purely
technical basis.” The IOC did not feel it has reached the stage where it merits
inclusion (dailytimes.com)
Womens boxing was denied in the 2008 Olympic Games, to be held in Beijing because there arent enough countries with an established national womens boxing program. The increase in women participants was not significant enough to merit inclusion into the 2008 Beijing games. The talent and skill level havent increased with the progression of time since the first womens world championships took place which was in 2001. For womens boxing to be added, some of the mens games would have to be removed from the Olympics to make room for the women (USABoxing.org)
While boxing has been contested since the Ancient Games in Athens, Greece, it
is the only event in the modern Games without a female counterpart. Women were
banned from Olympic events such as the triathlon until 1987 because some medical
experts believed women might injure their organs by participating in such
competitions. Scientific studies have shown otherwise and female athletes have
gone on to shatter mens records just to prove it one step further. Women like
Babe, Billie and Lucia; one by one breaking down walls and opening doors for the
next generation of female athletes. The Olympic movement would provide a heroine
for women in the boxing ring and also inspire women to reach for glory in other
fields that require strong minds and strong bodies.
In 1972, Congress signed Title IX which called for equal opportunities for
women in the field of sports. The Amateur Sports Act, passed in 1978, requires
the United States Olympic Committee and its National Governing Bodies for each
sport to operate in a nondiscriminatory manner, yet women still suffer from
frequent discrimination in their access or practice of both amateur and professional sports (boxer.senate.gov). Women are being discriminated against simply because they are women and perceived as a weaker sex. Women remain second-class in the athletic field when they arent afforded the same opportunities as the males in the same sport and boxing is the perfect example. The only way to reach gender equality is for both male and females to have the same support (boxer.senate.gov).
Womens boxing first appeared as an exhibition sport in the 1904 Olympic Games
in St. Louis. However, most nations banned women from boxing throughout most of
the 20th century. Sweden was the first country to revive an organized womens
boxing program in 1988 and many European countries soon followed. In October of
1993, United States Amateur Boxing (USAB) officially lifted its ban on a womens
boxing program, acting on a lawsuit filed by sixteen year old Dallas Malloy of
Washington State (USABoxing.org).
It wasnt until 1997 that USAB reluctantly sanctioned the first womens
national Golden Gloves tournament with 66 boxers competing in Augusta, Georgia.
In 2001, another historical