Wednesday, November 17, 2010

AIBA Boxing Academy to Open in Almaty, Kazakhstan

03/11/2010

On the opening day of its Congress at the Rixos Hotel today, the International Boxing Association (AIBA), the world governing body for the sport of boxing recognized by the International Olympic Committee, announced a relocation of its planned international boxing academy to the host city of the Congress, Almaty.

On the opening day of its Congress at the Rixos Hotel today, the International Boxing Association (AIBA), the world governing body for the sport of boxing recognized by the International Olympic Committee, announced a relocation of its planned international boxing academy to the host city of the Congress, Almaty.

The AIBA Academy was first presented to the AIBA Congress on October 22, 2007 in Chicago, USA as a special development vehicle to promote the sport of boxing and offer development opportunities to all stakeholders in the sport in one place. The aim of the AIBA Academy is to offer development and training programs along with education programs to help boxers with their post-boxing careers. It will also offer sport management courses for boxers, coaches, referees and judges and administrative personnel of national governing bodies.

On August 18, 2008 in Beijing, China, the AIBA Executive Committee had selected the city of Bécancour in Canada as a site for the AIBA Boxing Academy. Since this announcement, AIBA started several projects under the umbrella of the AIBA Academy in Bécancour with the partnership of the University of Québec, in Trois-Rivières, including development of the AIBA Referee and Judge Manual, a referee and judge instructor course and the development of the first part of the AIBA Coaches Manual. The construction project for the Academy has since experienced delays due to a lack of financial support from the Canadian government.
AIBA therefore decided to move its Boxing Academy to another location, the city of Almaty in Kazakhstan. The Kazakhstan Boxing Federation showed great interest in hosting this Academy and has been supported by the Kazakhstan government, which has approved a total of US$ 33 million in funding for the project.

AIBA is preparing the host city agreement to be signed with Kazakhstan Boxing Federation and the City of Almaty. Until the new building is completed, AIBA plans to implement training programs for its new scoring system, for all "Road to London" selected boxers, as well as for referees, judges and coaches. These programs will be held from March 2011 until July 2012, with the new Academy building scheduled to open in July 2012.

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