30 days to go until the 2018 Youth Olympic Games
September 7th, 2018 / IBA
With just 30 days to go until the start of the Youth Olympic Games in the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires, an impressive list of young boxing stars are preparing to launch their Olympic careers. While the Youth Olympic Games combines both competition and cultural exchange, the boxing event itself will run from 14-18 October and will provide an excellent platform for unveiling future champions and propelling them into the Olympic spotlight. The likes of Rio 2016 Olympic gold medallists Tony Yoka and Robeisy Ramirez and silver medallists Shakur Stevenson and Bektemir Melikuziev started their Olympic careers by triumphing at previous Youth Olympic Games editions.
“The Youth Olympic Games are an excellent opportunity to see our future champions in action.”, said AIBA Interim President Gafur Rahimov. “Last month, at the AIBA Youth Championships, we had the privilege of seeing our best young talents come together. And now these athletes have the opportunity to join the youth of the world to both compete and celebrate Olympism. This is an important step in an athletes’ career, and I hope that our young boxers will come away with an enriched experience.”
The Youth Olympic Games will bring together the world’s most talented athletes born between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2001, all of whom have qualified through the AIBA Youth Women’s World Championships in 2017 and the Youth Continental Qualifiers in 2018.
After their triumphant journey in the recent Youth World Championships in Budapest, India’s Nitu Ghanghas and USA’s Heaven Garcia will be some of the boxers to follow on the women’s side of the event; while on the men’s side, the potential line-up between Brazilian Luiz Oliveira and Ivan Price from England on the flyweight category will be an expected bout.
The Competition will cover the following weight categories: men fly (49kg), bantam (56kg), light (60kg), light welter (64kg), welter (69kg), middle (75kg), light heavy (81kg), heavy (91kg) and super heavy (91+kg) and women fly (51kg), feather (57kg), light (60kg) and middle (75kg) weights.
