Yesterday, USA Boxing announced the 2016 Olympic Boxing Trials Qualifier II, Pathway to Glory, will be held in two locations, the men headed to the Holiday Inn Philadelphia Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 7-12 and the women going to the Baltimore Waterfront Marriott in Baltimore, Maryland, September 8-11.
The top two winners in this men’s competition will advance to the 2016 USA Boxing Olympic Trials, this their second to last opportunity while the women compete in the three Olympic women’s weight divisions, flyweight (112 lbs.), lightweight (132 lbs.) and middleweight (165 lbs.) with the top 3 winners earning the last spots in the women’s Olympic Trials, this being their last chance to qualify. Four men in each the 10 Olympic weight classes and five women in the three women’s Olympic weight categories have already secured berths in the 2016 USA Boxing Olympic Trials by way of previous qualifying events.
The 2016 USA Boxing Women’s Olympic Trials and the final qualifier for the men will take place October 26-31 in Memphis, Tennessee, with men’s 2016 USA Boxing Olympic Trials competition hopefully taking place at the end of this year (2015), no location or date as of yet confirmed.
The idea of our men’s 2016 USA Boxing Olympic Trials having neither a date nor venue confirmed is atrocious. Our young men who have sacrificed everything for the chance to determine just who will represent the United States in the 2016 Olympic Boxing competition having this distraction is unbelievable and there no reason or explanation given for this disaster even more baffling.
It is now more than obvious the USA Boxing Women’s program being funded by the USOC (United States Olympic Committee) and that organization offering no funding to the men’s program has allowed the women a calmness while the men agonize in a situation they had nothing to do with but nonetheless will suffer the consequences.
USA men’s boxing families and friends will now be left to make last minute travel and accommodation plans to attend the 2016 USA Men’s boxing Olympic Trials, that a travesty, the attendance by many seriously jeopardized with no date or venue yet confirmed.
The clock is ticking and our young men that hope to represent the USA in 2016 Olympic boxing competition in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, are definitely behind the 8-ball but they continue to train hard while putting this (major) distraction on the back burner.