Boxer Manny Pacquiao, 45, cannot compete at Paris Olympics

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The Worldwide Olympic Committee is not going to change its guidelines to let boxing nice Manny Pacquiao compete on the Paris Video games aged 5 years past the entry restrict.

Pacquiao, who retired in 2021, wished to field at age 45 within the Olympic match in Paris, the place medal bouts will probably be held within the Roland Garros tennis advanced.

The IOC stated Sunday it wrote to Olympic officers in Philippines explaining the age restrict for boxers of 40 will probably be upheld. The IOC now oversees Olympic boxing after derecognizing the Worldwide Boxing Affiliation governing physique.

The age restrict for Olympic boxing was raised to 40 from 34 in 2013 — a transfer that may have let Pacquiao attempt to compete on the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. He selected to not on the time when he was additionally elected to be a senator in his dwelling nation.

It’s unclear if Pacquiao would have tried to earn a spot on the Paris Olympics in one in all two qualification tournaments that open later this month in Italy and in Could in Thailand.

The Philippines Olympic physique had talked of making an attempt to get a so-called “universality” entry to the Paris Video games. These are successfully free passes to occasions given to nations which have few athletes on the Olympics and sometimes wrestle to qualify on benefit.

Nonetheless, the IOC defined Sunday that the Philippines had been too profitable to learn from the scheme.

“Universality locations are usually not allotted to [teams] with a mean of greater than eight athletes in particular person sports activities/disciplines on the final two editions of the Olympic Video games,” the IOC stated. “That is the case for the Philippine Olympic Committee.”

Pacquiao ended his storied profession in September 2021 at age 42 after 72 fights, profitable 12 world titles at a document eight totally different weight divisions.