GENEVA, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- The existing French National Shooting Center in Chateauroux, located over 250 kilometres south of the capital Paris, has been assigned the venue for shooting competitions for Paris 2024, the IOC Executive Board approved on Thursday.
Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant, chair of Paris 2024 Coordination Commission, made a report on the preparations for the next summer Olympic Games to the IOC EB following his trip to Paris late in August.
"He shared the confidence shown by key stakeholders in France about hosting the Games," the IOC said in a statement after the IOC EB meeting.
Besides the update of the shooting venues, the North Paris Arena in Villepinte, a northeastern suburb of Paris, was approved as the venue for the boxing preliminaries and the fencing round of modern pentathlon. The Main Press Center will now be situated at the Palais des Congres, a convention center next to the Porte Maillot.
The IOC said that these changes "align with Paris 2024's continued efforts to optimise its Games without compromising its ambition".
As the International Boxing Association (IBA) was stripped of the authority to run the boxing qualifying events for Paris 2024 last June, a new qualification system was approved by the IOC EB on Thursday.
The new qualification system is based on direct qualification through selected competitions, including the use of National Olympic Committee (NOC) regional multisport events as Olympic boxing qualification tournaments.
The responsibility for the boxing competitions in the following events will therefore not lie with the IBA, and alternative arrangements will be put in place with the respective event organizers:
Pan-American Games - Santiago 2023
European Games - Krakow 2023
Pacific Games - Honiara 2023
Asian Games - Hangzhou 2022 (taking place in 2023)
ANOCA (Africa) multisport event to be confirmed
Following the continental phase of the quota place allocation, two world qualification tournaments are planned to be held in 2024.
With various concerns around the IBA governance, including the refereeing and judging process and its financial dependency on the Russian company Gazprom, boxing is currently not included in the program of the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028.
"Considering the absence of any real evolution, the IOC Executive Board is not in a position to reverse its decision," the IOC said.
Indian Olympic officials were given a final warning by the IOC for the "recurrent internal disputes and governance issues within the NOC".
The IOC EB is also considering an immediate suspension of the NOC of India at the next EB meeting in December 2022 if, by then, the NOC of India doesn't meet IOC requirements.
In view of the uncertain situation, the IOC Session due to take place in Mumbai in May 2023 has been postponed until at least September 2023.
Depending on the decisions taken during its next meeting in December 2022 relating to the NOC of India, the IOC EB will decide as to whether the IOC Session in 2023 should be kept in India or relocated. ■
