DENVER—Sacred Downing rose from a chair to practice her jab behind a big black curtain in the Denver Coliseum. She sparred against her shadow, ducking and dodging, throwing combinations. Her father James circled her: “You got this,” he whispered, rubbing her shoulders.
Minutes later, Downing, a 23-year-old from Trenton, N.J., emerged from the shadows to clinch her sixth consecutive Women’s USA Boxing Championship, defeating Rita Martinez of Las Cruces, N. M., 14-9 in the 119-pound weight class.
But like the other 19 women’s champions crowned at the weekend event, Downing has no imminent pro contract to sign, no HBO prime-time fight in the works. The Olympics are out of reach.
That may soon change. The International Olympic Committee will decide whether to add women’s boxing to the 2012 Games in London at an October meeting in Copenhagen. A yes vote could make Downing an Olympian.
“It’d be a dream come true,” she said. “I want people to see females box. I want the world to see females box.”
In the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, boxing was the only sport without a women’s competition. The IOC executive board determined in 2005 the sport had not “reached the stage where it merits inclusion.” Women did participate in open-water swimming and steeplechase at the Beijing Games.
One barrier for women’s boxing has been the topic of weight classes.
There are 11 men’s weight divisions in the Olympics. The International Boxing Association, or AIBA, wants one of them cut and five divisions created for women, ranging from 103 to 165 pounds.
The association notes there were 286 male boxers in Beijing. Its proposal would trim that number to 246 and open up 40 spots for women.
“That would be a start, but it could raise more health issues,” cautioned Christy Halbert, a longtime women’s boxing advocate and coach.
Halbert feels too many women would try to gain or cut weight to get into the few divisions. She wants more weight classes and 16 women in each division to better match the men, who have averaged 26 athletes in each weight class.
“If men need that many weight categories to stay safe and diverse, then the women do as well,” Halbert said. “The IOC has a great opportunity in front of them. They can say that women athletes are valued and women’s sports overall are valued.”
Since 1993, when USA Boxing first recognized women’s boxing, the women’s version of the sport has proved to be safer. The association reports just four injuries—two facial bruises and two nosebleeds—in 207 bouts at the 2008 world championships in Ningbo City, China.
Charles Butler, chairman of the AIBA Medical Commission, has argued that women boxers suffer fewer injuries, including concussions, than men.
Alicia Ashley, 41, helped Downing in her corner during her championship fight. She’s been fighting professionally for several years but says it’s not worth it for Downing to go pro: It’s too tough to make a living.
“I can’t live on the pay that they’re giving us, whereas the guys fight one time in the year and can retire,” she said.
The three-time world champ said the addition to the Olympics would dramatically boost the popularity of the sport, but the dream of Olympics women boxing has always been just out of reach.
“When I was an amateur fighter there was the possibility of women in the 2004 Olympics. But that was, like, ‘Yeah, that’s not going to happen,'” Ashley said.
“Since then, worldwide, there has been an explosion of women in the sport.”
The AIBA claims that 500,000 women boxers from more than 120 countries want a chance to compete for the Olympics.
At the first world championships in Scranton, Penn. in 2001, 125 women from 30 countries competed. Some 218 boxers from 39 nations fought at the fifth world championships last year in Ningbo City.
In May, after AIBA lobbying, IOC president Jacques Rogge told The Irish Times in Dublin that it was time for women’s boxing to be part of the Games. “The timing is right because the sport has evolved a lot both in universality, and also the homogeneity within each weight bracket,” Rogge said.
Halbert, one of only two U.S. women to achieve the highest level of boxing coaching certification, says the US needs to jump on the bandwagon.
“A lot of countries have really invested in women’s boxing programs,” she said. “We’ve fallen behind since about 2001. Women boxers from around the world have been training to get into the Olympics. But if we get that nod, it means more funding and more competition opportunities, which is intrinsical to skills increasing.”
Halbert is optimistic about the London Games.
“Women put their heart and soul into training, and they do so without any benefit of any professional multimillion dollar fights and Olympic status,” she said. “They put everything on the line in one of the most challenging sports in the world and they do so for the competition and the love of the sport.
“They’re ready.”
