By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has turned down the appeal of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) to allow boxing icon Manny Pacquiao to compete in the 2024 Paris Games due to his age.
In a letter to the POC, IOC Director for National Olympic Committee Relations James McLeon said “the only valid boxing qualification system for Paris 2024 is the one approved by the IOC Executive Board in September 2022 published and distributed to NOCs and boxing national federations on 6 December 2022.”
“This includes the age limit of 40,” McLeod said.
Pacquiao just turned 45 last December.
Pacquiao also couldn’t compete in Paris under the Universality rule as it is not allocated to NOCs with an average of more than eight athletes in individual sports/disciplines at the last two editions of the Olympic Games.
The country had 17 athletes in the 2020 Tokyo Games, all in individual sports, and 13 athletes in eight sports in the 2016 Rio edition.
Had Pacquiao met the age regulation, though, his possible qualification for the Olympics is to go through the qualifiers. Right now, there are only two available qualifiers left for boxers: the World Qualification Tournament slated Feb. 29 to March 12 in Italy and on May 23 to June 3 in Thailand.
“Too bad our beloved boxing icon is disqualified because of his age and that everyone needs to go through qualifiers, in all sports, to be able to participate in Paris,” said POC President Bambol Tolentino.
So far, the country has four qualifiers to Paris: pole vaulter EJ Obiena, boxer Eumir Marcial and gymnasts Carlos Yulo and Aleah Finnegan
