Summer Olympics 2000 Controversies have marred sport's image

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Tuesday, September 19
Controversies have marred sport's image
Reuters

SYDNEY, Australia -- A senior amateur boxing official was quoted on Monday as saying he feared for the sport's Olympic future after the Sydney Games.

"I know it has been said many times by some of my executive members that boxing will go off the Games after Sydney," Arthur Tunstall, an International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) vice-president, told The Australian newspaper.

Tunstall, an outspoken and sometimes controversial figure who was president of the Australian Boxing Union for 38 years to 1999, said the future of Olympic boxing may depend on the successor to IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch.

"A new IOC president could look at boxing being a controversial sport and put a proposal to his executive that boxing goes off," said Tunstall, who also serves as the Oceania Amateur Boxing Association president.

"That is something we have to wait and see what happens and make sure the Sydney boxing program doesn't have any problems. I know there are a few people on the IOC that are not favorable to boxing."

Samaranch is presiding over his last Olympics in Sydney and a successor is due to be elected next year.

The IOC gave boxing a warning after the 1988 Olympic tournament was overshadowed by allegations of corruption and fixed matches.

However, boxing was confirmed for Sydney after a review of the tournament at the 1992 Barcelona Games.

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