Hamburg’s bid for the 2024 Olympic Games got a boost Tuesday when the city was awarded the 2017 amateur boxing world championships.
The executive committee of the amateur boxing governing body AIBA announced Hamburg as the winner of the bidding process in Doha Tuesday. Recent cities to host the championships include Doha, Almaty, Baku and Milan.
German Boxing Federation president Juergen Kyas said “the world championships is the best foundation to push the Olympic bid.”
“We are already looking forward to hosting the world’s most exciting boxing tournament, and the World Boxing Championships Hamburg 2017 will be of huge importance to the continuing growth of German boxing.”
Previous boxing worlds in Germany were held in 1995 in Berlin and 1982 in Munich.
Hamburg hopes to gain momentum for its 2024 bid by hosting championships in individual disciplines. AIBA is the third biggest association in the IOC with nearly 200 countries as members.
Kyas said, “having 196 nations as members is a huge deal. In these countries people will talk about Hamburg”.
Hamburg’s sport minister Michael Neumann said “this decision is a big success for Hamburg sport. We now have a big chance to show the world what we can do in 2017”,
Hamburg is competing for the 2024 Games against Los Angeles, Paris, Rome and Budapest but the city must first win a referendum on November 29 to approve the bid. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will later elect the host city at its 2017 session in Lima, Peru.
