Further to the approval of a series of amendments to the Tokyo 2020 qualification system principles by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Qualification Task Force in April 2020, the review of the International Federation (IF) qualification processes for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and each sport has now been finalised.
The IOC has been working closely with all the IFs to determine the necessary adaptations to the Olympic qualification systems for their respective sports, and athletes and National Olympic Committees (NOCs) have been consulted as well.
A representative group of NOCs was involved in the review process, and athlete consultation was sought through each IF.
A total of 57 per cent of all the qualification places had been confirmed by the time the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 were postponed. In order to adapt the qualification systems for the remaining places to the new timing of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, the qualification system principles were updated, approved by the Qualification Task Force (acting on behalf of the IOC Executive Board) and shared with all the IFs.
The updates included a number of changes, such as an extended qualification period and new deadlines:
A new qualification deadline of 29 June 2021, based on the Olympic Games starting on 23 July (day of the Opening Ceremony);
The potential extension of sport-specific qualification periods if such an extension respects the qualification period deadline of 29 June 2021;
The revised final entries deadline of 5 July 2021;
If a qualification system specified age eligibility criteria, the criteria should be extended to cover the new dates, allowing athletes who were eligible in July 2020 to remain eligible in 2021. All eligibility and age criteria would be at the discretion of the respective IFs.
As things stand in relation to boxing, the Asia/Oceania and African qualifiers are completed but the Americas qualifiers have been completely rescheduled. The European qualifiers were postponed after three days of competition in London in March and will resume next February and March.
The final World qualifier will be hosted at a city to be confirmed next May and June.
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