New Delhi: Professional boxer Vijender Singh may well represent India at the Olympics, starting 2016 Rio Games, if AIBA's proposal comes to fruition.
According to a report in The Guardian, the International Boxing Association president, Wu Ching-kuo, has indicated that the last remaining barriers preventing full-time professionals form competing in the Games are set to be abolished within a matter of months.
“We want the best boxers to come to the Olympic Games. It is AIBA’s 70th birthday, and we want something to change – not after four years, but now,” he said.
“It is an IOC policy to have the best athletes in the Games and, of the international federations, AIBA is probably the only one without professional athletes in the Olympics. We already have our own professionals, APB and WSB [World Series] boxers, in the Games [and] we will go further.”
The report added, that when pressed on whether the change could realistically be made in time to affect eligibility for the Rio Olympics this summer, Wu replied: “According to our statutes it is absolutely possible.”
At a time when Indian boxers are struggling to get the qualification for Rio Games, such a development would provide the likes of Vijender another shot at world's biggest sporting event.
The 30-year-old middleweight boxer turned professional last year.
