Coaching crisis, heartbreaks and Olympic setbacks mark a disastrous year for Indian boxing
Indian boxing endured a turbulent year marred by coaching turmoil, crushing defeats, and a medal-less Paris Olympics campaign, all of it made worse by the national federation's negligence that brought unprecedented embarrassment to the country. There were very few positives to count in a year when, after a widely successful 2023, expectations were sky high.
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Yet no boxer was able to add to the three bronze medals — Vijender Singh (2008), M C Mary Kom (2012) and Lovlina Borgohain (2021) — that India had secured in the previous editions of the Olympics.
Nishant Dev, unlucky to miss out on an Olympic medal, was India's top performer but the likes of world champions Nikhat Zareen and Lovlina disappointed despite widely held belief that fortunes of women's boxing were following an upward trajectory.
Outside the ring, the Boxing Federation of India's (BFI) negligence cost India an Olympic quota even as administrators globally scrambled to retain the sport on the Olympic roster.
Controversy and coaching crisis
The dismal performance at the first World Qualifying Tournament, where all nine boxers failed to secure a spot at the Paris Games, prompted High Performance Director Bernard Dunne to resign from his position while still in Italy, less than four months before the Olympics.
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