Filipino Frank Elizalde was one of two International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials assigned to observe the conduct of boxing in Sydney. What Elizalde saw, he didn’t like.
Of course, Elizalde wielded no power to throw weight on Chowdhry, the long-time International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) President from Pakistan. The extent of his authority was to report his findings to IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch.
"It was a totally negative situation in Sydney," sighed Elizalde who was elected IOC representative to the Philippines in 1985. "I don’t think there was wholesale robbery but the whole ambiance – the conduct of the tournament – wasn’t good. The AIBA is getting out of hand. The results of the fights in the eliminations weren’t too bad but in the semifinals and finals, there were real lulus which could be traced to political maneuvering."
To compound the problem, Elizalde said the relations between the IOC and AIBA are strained.
"In the Olympics, the AIBA has control of the organization of the boxing event but the IOC has the final say on protocol matters, not the technical aspects of the sport," explained Elizalde who was born in Spain and graduated at Harvard University in 1954. "In Sydney, I chose to award the medals in the lightflyweight and flyweight divisions because I thought a Filipino would win. The IOC has the privilege of awarding medals. Would you believe that in Seoul in 1988, I was about to award a medal to a boxer when Chowdhry literally grabbed it from me? That’s the kind of guy he is. I let it go to avoid an embarrassing situation but I later told Chowdhry never to do it again, that he should respect the authority of the IOC."
Elizalde said using computers to score fights is problematic. "You don’t know how the fingers of a judge function," he continued. "Some points scored were beyond understanding. Body blows hardly counted so fighters end up as head hunters because the gauge of a clean punch is if it lands on the head. During a fight, scores are not announced but news reporters give hand signals to indicate who’s ahead because of their access to TV monitors. It’s ridiculous. Chowdhry refuses to announce the running scores because a fighter who’s way ahead in the final round will opt to just run away and preserve his lead. But in Sydney, that’s what happened. I think the only ones who didn’t know the running count of scores were the Filipino fighters."
Elizalde described the AIBA as a corrupt organization. He said former Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) President Mel Lopez can tell which referee or judge is on the level and who’s not.
Chowdhry was opposed in the AIBA elections in Turkey two years ago but rival Dr. C.K. Wu of Taiwan was too honest to sway the votes of the majority.
Despite the dark image of Olympic boxing, Elizalde said the sport is in the Games calendar to stay.
"There are always calls to drop boxing but I don’t think banning the sport is the answer," he continued. "It’s the AIBA that should be straightened out, not boxing."
Elizalde said some years back, the IOC formed a Program Commission to review the Olympic calendar. The Commission submitted radical recommendations, including the elimination of boxing, and was quickly dissolved. Now, there’s a study group made up of sports experts and professionals examining the Olympic calendar.
Elizalde said adding more sports is not in the agenda unless some events are deleted. "There are too many sports to begin with," he added. "In Sydney, it was just gigantic – 10,000 participants, 20,000 media. As much as possible, the IOC prefers the events to be held within one city, near the Athletes Village which is the identifying symbol of Olympic solidarity. At the moment, the IOC is promoting sexual equality so we’re seeing more women’s events like in water polo and weightlifting. To accommodate sports like bowling or squash or golf, the solution is to eliminate some events. In Athens, I understand the Organizing
Committee for the 2004 Olympics wants to introduce water skiing and karatedo.
Elizalde noted that the sports that don’t make it in the Olympic calendar find their way to the World Games which will be staged next year in Akita, Japan. The IOC is subsidizing the World Games as a sort of "farm" system.
Elizalde left for Athens last Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Coordinating Committee and will miss today’s POC elections. He arrives tomorrow.
Elizalde, 68, is a member of the IOC Commission that will decide the host city of the 2008 Games. In contention are Paris, Istanbul, Beijing, Osaka, and Toronto.
So what’s to do to sanitize Olympic boxing?
First, the IOC should take an active role in straightening out Chowdhry – if Samaranch has the guts to do it. The word is Chowdhry delivers oodles of cash to the IOC coffers through his nefarious deals with underworld characters involved in amateur boxing. The IOC shouldn’t be held hostage by the AIBA.
Then, throw out the computerized scoring system. It obviously doesn’t reflect a fighter’s performance and is a convenient excuse for human frailty to camouflage political compromises. Bring back the suspense of judging a fight like in the pros.
Unless reforms are instituted in Olympic boxing, Filipino fighters are doomed to frustration every four years.