Boxing parade to show off our Olympic punch
2016 BID | 680 top amateurs to do footwork up State
In the late '90s, Chicago earned international attention with its decorated fiberglass bovines, Cows on Parade.
Next week, the city hopes to earn more with what could be called Pows on Parade.
To mark the start of an amateur boxing championship that will attract about 680 athletes from almost 120 nations, the boxers and their trainers will march up State Street on Oct. 22 in a parade of color and national pride.
The boxers, competing in a qualification tournament at the University of Illinois at Chicago for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, will stroll north up State from the Palmer House to the Chicago Theatre for the opening ceremonies. It starts at 4 p.m.
World Sport Chicago, the local group funded by the committee vying to host the 2016 Olympics here, is hosting the event. In recent weeks, the Olympic group has been negotiating with city agencies to stage the parade.
A World Sport Chicago official confirmed the previously undisclosed parade plan and likened it to the opening ceremonies at an Olympics.
The organizers hope members of local ethnic associations will lineState to applaud boxers from their home countries. Local consulates are preparing parties to host the boxers from their countries, officials said.
Chicago is counting on the AIBA World Boxing Championships to show the International Olympic Committee -- a group that will decide in 2009 which city wins the hosting rights to the 2016 Summer Games -- that Chicago can do big-time Olympic-style athletics with skill and flair.
At least 20 IOC members, about a fifth of the total who will vote, are expected to attend the event.
Peter Ueberroth, U.S. Olympic Committee chairman, said the boxing championships could influence voting members who don't come to Chicago. "Their boxing team comes back and says, 'We've never been treated better.' ... They say, 'Wow,' " Ueberroth said this month in a visit here.
More than 100 reporters are expected to cover the championships, which run from Oct. 23 through Nov. 3.
With a staff of about 30, Chicago organizers have been scrambling to set up the single-elimination championships. About 1,000 volunteers have been trained, assigned such jobs as greeting athletes at the airport to working the media center.
Nine practice rings will be built at UIC's phys-ed building. At the start of the championships, which will feature more than 600 bouts, two rings will be set up at UIC Pavilion. Final bouts will be fought in a single ring, said Tim Larkin, event manager.
Chicago 2016, the local Olympic organizers, are paying for most of the championships. Sport Chicago will not reveal the cost, but a spokesman said USG Corp. is the "presenting sponsor.''
Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.