INTERVIEW: Rogge opens the door for Olympic pro boxers

By Guenter Deister and John Bagratuni Sep 29, 2011, 14:07 GMT

Baden-Baden, Germany - The last Olympic amateur bastion may fall by allowing professional boxers into the Games, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said at the site where the amateur rule was first eroded 30 years ago.

Rogge said in an interview with dpa that the IOC will look into the matter once the governing boxing body AIBA has made a formal request of its plan to bring pro fighters to the Olympics in 2016.

'We are satisfied as long as the rules are followed,' Rogge said. 'We will look into it. We have had the situation in other professional sports - tennis, football, basketball, ice hockey and golf.'

Rogge was speaking at the 30th anniversary of the Olympic Congress 1981 in the German spa of Baden-Baden, where landmark decisions included the initial erosion of the amateur-only rule by allowing the sports federations to set up their own Olympic eligibility criteria.

Boxing is the only sports left which up to now sends amateurs to the Games, where the likes of tennis heroine Steffi Graf, basketball legend Magic Johnson and football star Lionel Messi have added gold medals to the millions of dollars earned from their sports.

Tiger Woods may also go for gold if he qualifies for the inaugural Olympic gold tournament 2016 in Rio, and that's where the AIBA also wants to have its first pro boxers.

AIBA president Wu Ching Kuo announced on August 1 the planned launch of a professional series (AIBA Professional Boxing - APB) with the aim of allowing its pros into Olympic boxing from 2016 onwards.

'We will allow these APB boxers to compete in the Olympic Games with limited terms and conditions and we plan to make this dream come true from the Rio 2016 Olympic Games,' Wu said.

While the ABP invites athletes aged 19-40 and boxers from other professional organisations in its first year 2013, the Olympic criteria are stricter with a 19-34 age limit and no boxers currently in pro organizations eligible.

As a result, boxing fans can probably forget about seeing the Klitschko brothers in Rio although there may be a loophole to get established stars in after all.

'In exceptional cases, APB can consider to accept some boxers who can add much value to APB,' says the APB programme which is to be finalized by the end of the year.

The phrase is from the general APB admission criteria, but - depending on how the series starts off in 2013 - AIBA may want to raise its profile at Olympic boxing as well with big names.

But the age limit could be a potential minefield, and health issues, as Wu said at the presentation that AIBA wants to abandon the headguard at all of its men's events.

For Rogge, athletes' safety is a top priority.

'They (the rules) must be obeyed, in boxing especially safety measures, such as wearing the helmet. The health rules are very important, that's what we will tell the AIBA,' said Rogge.

'But it is also about compliance with anti-doping rules and the membership in national federations.'

In the dpa interview, Rogge also encouraged Munich make another bid for the Winter Olympics after losing out to Pyeongchang for the 2018 edition two months ago.

'The IOC members like a city to bid a second or third time,' said Rogge, referring to Pyeongchang who third time lucky. 'Munich's bid was good but Pyeongchang had the best bid. It was improved over the three attempts.'

Rogge named German IOC vice-president Thomas Bach among 'four or five IOC members who have the potential for the presidency' when his term ends in 2013.

Apart from ensuring further successful Olympics in his final two years in office, Rogge also spoke of 'a challenge and a particular concern to create a system against fraudulent betting.'

Read more about Olympics IOC