Canadian Olympic boxing hopefuls poised to benefit from traditional powers in decline at Pan Am Games

When the Pan Am Games boxing tournament kicks off Oct. 19, Canada will field a full slate of competitors as 13 Canadian boxers are scheduled to make the trip to Santiago, Chile. That's one for each weight class in both gender categories.

The group also provides plenty of reasons for optimism that Canada, which produced medallists at every Olympic Games from 1984 through 1996, might make some noise in the Olympic boxing tournament next summer in Paris.

First, there's the Wayne Gretzky Theory, the one about missing all the shots you don't take. Canada's maxed-out boxing team is set to take a lot of shots. Canada's best showing at a Pan Am games came in 2015, when they won six medals. Unless you're Cuba or the U.S., you're always a long shot to repeat a performance that strong, but a boxer in each division gives Canada a chance.

IBA is the FIFA of pugilism, the main organizer of large-scale Olympic-style boxing competitions, and the target of criticism — often well-deserved — over corruption, poor officiating and murky funding sources. The IOC's specific beef with IBA these days concerns the boxing organization's president, a businessman from Uzbekistan with alleged links to organized crime, and IBA's dependence on money from Gazprom, Russia's state energy corporation.

In June, the IOC cut ties with IBA. Boxing will remain on the Olympic schedule, but IBA will not oversee the competition, the way World Athletics does Olympic track and field, or FIBA runs Olympic basketball. The IOC will oversee the Olympic tournament, just like it did in 2021, and the average spectator likely won't be able to tell the difference.

But the move does have implications for athletes, and for fans trying to follow them on their path to Paris