Dip in Indian men’s boxing for Paris Olympics 2024: Where it went wrong?

Interestingly, only two Indian male boxers, Amit Panghal (51 kg) and Nishant Dev (71 kg) secured their spots in the upcoming Paris Olympics 2024. There is a substantial dip in the number of participants as in the Tokyo Olympics, India fielded five men's boxers.

Notably, both boxers secured their spots from the recently concluded World Olympic Boxing Qualifier in Bangkok, Thailand. The last time India sent fewer than three men boxers was at the 1984 Summer Games.

The 1994 World Championships bronze medallist boxer Venaktesan Devarajan blamed the dip on the much-debated evaluation-based system that replaced the practice of selection trials to pick the contingent.

Notably, sparring sessions drastically came down while tactical and technical training turned out to be less prominent. The focus was completely on building speed and endurance.

“India has emerged as a solid force in women's boxing in this cycle and they deserve full credit for that. However, only two men making the cut speaks a lot about the system,” said Venkatesan as quoted by Hindustan Times.

“I won’t say speed and endurance are secondary, but nothing can replace sparring. Boxers should be able to read their opponent’s body language and pre-empt their moves. They must have the heart and the will to take the punishment and reply in kind. All those skills can only be developed in the ring. I feel that's one area where we could have done better," he added.

It’s important to note that the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) adopted the new policy in February 2023, giving priority to evaluation-based selection instead of having selection trials.

The new policy was introduced by then-Irish High-Performance Director Bernard Dunne and implemented in a year of the senior men and women World Championships and the Asian Games.

Interestingly, according to the policy, the number of boxers per weight class was cut down in the camp, which reduced the sparring options for elite boxers. A senior boxer who maintained to be anonymous in the Patiala camp talked about the acute lack of sparring (via Hindustan Times).

“What use are sprints if I can’t throw a good punch? There were hardly any technical inputs or tactical advice,” said the boxer.

Speaking about the evaluation-based policy, 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Akhil Kumar emphasized that it turned out to be a wrong step from the federation. Also, he further added that hiring a foreign coach wasn’t a great idea.

“That evaluation-based policy is the major reason for only two men making it to the Olympics,” said Akhil (via Hindustaan Times).

“I don’t think hiring the foreign coach (Bernard Dunne) was a great idea because understanding the Indian boxers is a big task for a foreigner. Our training patterns, routines, and mindset are very different. You can’t hammer in changes without taking everyone on board,” he added.

In March 2024, Bernard Dunne resigned from his post after none of the nine Indian boxers were able to earn qualification at the first World Boxing Olympic Qualifier in Busto Arsizio, Italy.

From five in Tokyo to just two in Paris - the story of Indian men's boxers

All five Indian male boxers in the Tokyo Olympics - Panghal (52kg), Manish Kaushik (63kg), Vikas Krishan (69kg), Ashish Kumar (75kg), and Satish Kumar (+91kg) - failed to win a medal. But India's representation in five out of the eight categories spoke highly of the sport's growth in the nation. So far, only one Indian male boxer has won an Olympic medal - Vijender Singh won the bronze in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

It’s worth noting that for the quadrennial event in Paris, as per IOC’s aim for gender parity, the number of men’s weight categories has been reduced from eight to seven while for women, the number has gone up from five to six.

Also, in the three-year Olympic cycle leading up to the Paris Olympics, Indian women’s boxers grabbed seven medals, including five gold across two senior world championships and two medals at the Asian Games.

On the other hand, male boxers managed to win two senior medals and one bronze medal in Asian Games.