Fighting for recognition
CHAMPIONSHIPS | Boxers battling for Olympic role -- as is Chicago
Darien's Joe Sanchez, who has been involved in boxing as a fighter and referee for about 32 years, will take the amateur version over the pro style any day.
A volunteer with the upcoming World Boxing Championships at the University of Illinois at Chicago -- a qualifying event for the 2008 Beijing Olympics -- Sanchez opined that amateur boxers often exhibit more skill than their hard-clubbing professional counterparts.
(Rich Hein/Sun-Times)
(Rich Hein/Sun-Times)
What: The AIBA World Boxing Championships, a qualifying tournament for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Where: The University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion.
When: Tuesday through Nov. 3.
How: Tickets for the early rounds, which begin at 11 a.m. and run through 10 p.m., are priced at Ticketmaster between $10 and $25, with kids 12 and under admitted for $5. Semifinal rounds are $15 to $75, and the finals run $25 to $100. Add handling fees to ticket prices.
At 4 p.m. Monday, a parade of boxers will march up State Street to the Chicago Theatre for the official opening.
The fast-forward fights have fewer rounds, he said, and pugilists in the upcoming amateur championship here will be eliminated after a single loss.
The boxers -- more than 650 hopefuls -- "are trying to make a statement in a hurry."
A little like Chicago itself.
The AIBA World Boxing Championships, which kick off Monday afternoon with a parade up State Street of flag-waving boxers from nearly 120 nations, is an Olympic-qualifying event for the boxers -- and, in a way, for Chicago organizers hoping to host the Games in 2016.
The International Olympic Committee won't make its decision on 2016 until 2009, so "there's no make-or-break situation that can occur today," said Bill Scherr, chairman of World Sport Chicago, which is presenting the championships.
However, it will be "a demonstration to the world, and to the International Olympic Committee, of Chicago's ability to organize and run a very large international sporting event."
About 20 members of the IOC, including its president, Jacques Rogge, are expected to be in Chicago, giving the local Olympic organizers invaluable access -- within limits. Because of Olympic bylaws, Chicago 2016 officials cannot lobby the powerful visitors directly, said Scherr.
Tours of Chicago will be available, though. "We can show them our city, and we can entertain them while they're in town," he said.
"Our job now is to do a great job with the boxing tournament. That's the way we'll impress those IOC members in Chicago," said Scherr, a former Olympic wrestler.
Chicago had six months to plan for the championships -- a relative rush job for an event that other host cities have taken years to prepare for. Chicago was awarded the tournament when Moscow ran into organizational problems.
In hosting boxers from Algeria to New Zealand, Chicago officials had myriad details to attend to.
Housing for the pugilists plus about 400 coaches and trainers was found at the Palmer House Hilton. In addition to two rings at the UIC Pavilion, nine more practice areas have been built inside the university's student athletic center.
There's the daunting task of feeding the participants: At the Palmer House, it's "high calories, low fat, sauces on the side, lots of fresh fruit and fruit drinks," said event manager Tim Larkin, a veteran of World Cup soccer in 1994, the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. "When you think about 1,100 people coming to a dining hall three times a day, that's a lot of food."
Then there's medical backup for participants in a sport that can be brutally violent. Three ambulances will be assigned to the UIC Pavilion, and Rush University Medical Center will have head, bone and face injury specialists on duty.
About 1,600 volunteers have been recruited, including 100 or so translators.
The local Olympic organizers are paying for much of the championships, though Chicago Police are being enlisted to help with security and traffic control. In keeping with Chicago 2016's practice of closely guarding costs, Scherr would not reveal the tab for the privately financed championships, but estimates have ranged from $3 million to $5 million.
The UIC Pavilion can hold 5,000 for boxing, but organizers say they hope, in the early rounds, to attract 1,500 a day.
Scherr said "we won't sell out every day in the early rounds," but they expect the finals to attract a full house.
Good crowds, he said, will help make the case that Chicagoans want the Olympics here.
"We know this is a great sports town," he said.