Sport

Male boxers at Rio will compete without headguards

Protection to be removed after research finds helmets may give a false sense of security

Ireland’s Michael Conlan (left) in action against Murodjon Akhmadaliev, from Uzbekistan, at the 2015 AIBA World Boxing Championships in Doha, Qatar. Photograph: INPHO/Francis Myers.
Ireland’s Michael Conlan (left) in action against Murodjon Akhmadaliev, from Uzbekistan, at the 2015 AIBA World Boxing Championships in Doha, Qatar. Photograph: INPHO/Francis Myers.
Mon Jul 25 2016 - 01:00

Male boxers will step into the ring without headguards at Rio for the first time since the 1980 Moscow Games, and their vests could be next on the hit list.

With the lines between amateur and professional increasingly blurred, another distinctive difference between the codes – the red or blue singlets worn by Olympic boxers – is being questioned.

“The removal of vests (from the ring) is a proposal we are looking at,” a spokesman for governing body AIBA said.

“It has to be approved by the relevant AIBA commission and approved by the executive committee and then we will present this request to the IOC (International Olympic Committee).”

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The arguments for and against headguards, first used at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, may continue for some time but AIBA officials are convinced theirs is the right call.

Boxers fought headgear-free at the 2013 and 2015 world championships as well as the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Female boxers, who made their Olympic debut only in 2012, will continue with headguards pending further research.

Mike Loosemore of the English Institute of Sport (EIS), who carried out research for the IOC after AIBA requested headguards be removed for Rio, supported the move. "There's three pieces of research I have done which led me to the conclusion that removing headguards was a good thing," he said. He compared the number of knockouts and stoppages due to head blows in world series boxing against amateur fights at the time, and in the 2009 and 2011 world championships compared with 2013.

“There was a marked reduction in knockouts and stoppages in 2013 when the headguards were removed,” he said. “People feel safer wearing a headguard and so are prepared to take a blow, to give a blow because they feel its not going to do them any harm.”

Loosemore said he and Australian Andrew McIntosh used dummies to assess the impact of blows to the head.