A boxer who missed out on Olympic qualification because she was pregnant has won one of her biggest fights – to compete at this summer’s Tokyo Games.
Mandy Bujold, an 11-time Canadian champion, will be in Japan after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) ruled in her favour.
Bujold secured gold at the Canadian qualifier in December 2019 and looked set to compete at her second Olympics, but the final Americas qualifying event earlier this year had to be cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In the wake of that, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its boxing taskforce said qualification would be decided on three events from 2018 and 2019, when flyweight Bujold was on maternity leave.
“We looked at how it would affect me and thought it wasn’t fair,” she told the BBC. “I was left out because these events were retroactively selected as qualifying events.
“Of all the battles I’ve prepared for in my career, I never thought the battle for gender equity would be the hardest.
“It was one of the biggest fights of my career, but also the fight with the most meaning. I was standing up for what I believe is right and for what I had worked so hard for.”
As a Commonwealth Games bronze medallist and two-time Pan-American champion who was fifth at the 2016 Olympics, Bujold thought writing to the IOC after its initial decision would be enough for a change of heart.
But when the request was rejected, she took her case to Cas, and on Wednesday revealed it had ruled in her favour, saying qualification criteria must include accommodation for women who were pregnant or on maternity leave during the qualification period.
“This is definitely a start to something bigger,” she said. “This is something that is precedent-setting moving forward to the next generation. It represents a lot more than a medal or a placing.”
An IOC spokesperson said: “The IOC is carefully studying the Cas award in this specific case, for which no reasons have yet been provided.”
The governing body said the ruling would affect “a very limited number of athletes from the Americas region”.
It added: “The IOC Boxing Task Force will consider how to make the accommodations mandated by Cas, while upholding the principle that any sport qualification criteria must be related to objective sporting performance on the field of play.”
Bujold will now finalise her preparations for the Games, which begin on 23 July.
“The fact that I was off with my pregnancy and came back at the level that I did means I probably have a lot more experience with that big break of time off than a lot of the other athletes,” she said. “But we haven’t been able to step into the ring to compete.
“However, preparing for [the legal fight], the nerves, the anxiety, the adrenaline … it was probably as close to a boxing match as you can get.”
Tokyo will be Bujold’s final competition as she plans to retire this year, and she is proud her two-year-old daughter will be able to watch her.
“I wanted her to be here and be part of the moment even though she’s not quite understanding what’s going on,” she said.
“It’s so important for her to see what was going on. The biggest message is if you have a dream or a goal is to keep pushing for it.”
