It appears that Manny Pacquiao’s Olympic dreams are still far from reality.
After a decorated boxing career featuring twelve world titles across eight different weight divisions, “PacMan” revealed his wish to enter the quadriennial event at 45 years of age, following his retirement from professional boxing in 2021, and wanted to be a part of the upcoming Paris Olympic Games this year.
IOC denies Manny Pacquiao “universality” entry” into the Olympics
Although the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had raised the age limit for its boxing tournament from 34 to 40 in 2013, three years before the Rio Games, Pacquiao, along with the Philippine Olympic Committee had high hopes that the IOC would grant him a “universality” entry.
However, as it turns out, the IOC has denied Pacquiao the entry, as the governing body revealed on Sunday via an official release.
“Universality places are not allocated to [teams] with an average of more than eight athletes in individual sports/disciplines at the last two editions of the Olympic Games,” an official statement from the IOC read. “This is the case for the Philippine Olympic Committee.” [H/T The Washington Post]
What is a universality entry?
A “universality” entry into the Olympics effectively means an athlete securing an Olympics berth, not based on qualification but having an enhanced profile, which Pacquiao and the POC had hoped to secure.
Unfortunately, there is a catch to this method of entry. As per the IOC rules, Pacquiao is unable to earn a universality entry into the boxing tournament at the Paris Games, due to them having more than eight representatives at the past two Games.
Provided that if the IOC had increased their age limit to 45, there was a change of Pacquiao securing a quota at the Paris Games through the two upcoming qualifying tournaments- in Italy and Thailand in February and May, respectively. However, that opportunity is also nonexistent due to the IOC refusing to increase their age limit.
