The Indian boxing contingent, that featured two reigning world champions in Nikhat Zareen and Lovlina Borgohain, entered the Olympics hoping for an unprecedented medal haul, only to crumble under pressure, leaving behind a trail of disappointment in a medal-less campaign.
Boxing became a medal hope for India after Vijender Singh’s historic bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games. MC Mary Kom added a women’s bronze to it in 2012.
Although the 2016 Rio Games saw the boxers return without a medal, Borgohain clinched a bronze at the Tokyo Olympics to revitalise the sport.
Expectations were high from Paris and observers of the game felt at least one, if not two medals, could be expected from the six boxers who qualified.
Two-time world champion Zareen (50kg), Borgohan (75kg), and 2023 world championship bronze-medallist Nishant Dev (71kg) were all seen as strong podium contenders.
Poor show
But when it came to actual competition, the Indians never seemed to have the momentum needed to go deep into the tournament.
With the exception of Nishant, who was denied a podium finish after a contentious result in his quarterfinal, the rest struggled with Borgohan and Zareen unable to overcome formidable opponents, and Amit Panghal (51kg) failing to match his previous form.
Borgohain, Panghal and Nishant needed just two wins to secure medals.
Although Borgohain and Zareen were handed challenging draws, with both encountering formidable opponents in their second rounds. However, given that they entered as reigning world champions, the two were expected to overcome such challenges or, at the very least, put up a resilient fight.
However, they succumbed rather meekly to their Chinese counterparts.
Zareen, who was considered a potential gold medallist, was markedly off-colour in the second round and later revealed that she had been taking some extreme measures to stay inside the prescribed weight limit, that left her exhausted for actual competition.
She opened her campaign with a scrappy win and then lost to Wu Yu in the second round.
Borgohain once again fell to old foe Li Qian, who seems to have the Indian’s number, having defeated her in three of their four meetings.
Among the men,. Panghal looked a pale shadow of his sharp and aggressive self against Zambia’s Patrick Chinyemba, who lost in the very next round.
Jaismine Lamboria, who came in after dropping down to 57kg weight class from her more comfortbale 60kg division, expectedly lost to Tokyo Olympics silver-medallist Nesthy Petecio.
Nevertheless, Preeti Pawar (54kg) delivered a commendable performance in her bout against reigning world silver-medallist Yeni Marcela Arias.
Government Funding
A total of 17 national camps and 23 foreign exposure trips were conducted in the build-up to the Paris Olympics for nine core TOPS (Target Olympic Podium Scheme) boxers and 20 development pugilists. Sports Ministry spent Rs 60.93 crore on this.
Significant funds were also allocated to individual athletes, most notably Rs 91.71 lakh for Zareen, Rs 81.76 lakh for Borgohain, Rs 65.90 lakh for Panghal, and Rs 65.86 lakh for Nishant.
Coaching instability and selection policy
The Boxing Federation of India’s inability to provide a stable environment was a key issue in the build-up to the Games. Since the Tokyo Games, coaches have come and gone, denying the boxers the stability that is crucial to an Olympic campaign.
Women’s High Performance Director Raffaele Bergamasco was the first to depart right after Tokyo followed by men’s HPD Santiago Nieva in May 2022.
Narendra Rana succeeded CA Kuttapa as the men’s head coach, only for Kuttapa to be reinstated later.
Bhaskar Bhatt was briefly appointed as the women’s head coach before he quit the position in June 2023 while HPD Bernard Dunne, who was appointed in October 2022, stepped down from his post four months before the Olympics, leaving Indian boxing in a lurch.
Foreign coach Dmitriy Dmitruk was the last coach appointed in February last year.
The new selection policy that replaced the trial system was also a talking point.
Panghal remained out of the national team until the last qualifier with Deepak Bhoria getting the nod based on the assessment system that relied on camp performance as well as competitive results to evaluate the boxers.
However, Panghal was sent to the final qualifier, and while he secured a quota, the Haryana boxer struggled to shake off the rustiness after being away from international competition for an extended period.