The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | On July 5th, Uganda unveiled a team of 25 athletes to represent the country in the forthcoming 2024 Paris Olympic Games, scheduled to take place from July 26 to August 11, 2024. A total of 10,500 athletes will compete in 329 events across 32 different venues.
Unlike the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, where Uganda had three boxers on the team; Catherine Nanziri, David Ssemujju, and Shadir Musa Bwogi, this time, the country will not have a single pugilist representing it in one of its historically most successful Olympic disciplines.
Before the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, boxing was Uganda’s most successful sport at the Olympics, earning a total of four medals: three silver and one bronze. However, the current state of the sport in the country does not guarantee a bright future, with no athlete set to push for Uganda’s legacy in Paris.
This marks the third time Uganda will attend the Olympics without a boxer, with previous instances in 1976 (due to a continental boycott) and 2012 (due to administrative issues within the Boxing Federation).
How did we reach here?
The 2024 Paris Boxing Olympics qualifiers were divided into three windows where boxers could vie for slots at the Paris Summer Games. These included the continental qualifiers and two world qualification tournaments: one in Busto Arsizio, Italy, held in March 2024, and the other in Bangkok, Thailand, held from May 23 to June 3, 2024.
Last year, the International Olympic Committee made changes to the continental qualifiers, reducing the number of available slots to only 13 boxers—seven men and six women—compared to the 50 at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. For the men, there were only seven weight categories, and only the gold medalist from each category would qualify for the Olympic Games, unlike in 2020, where 22 boxers qualified from eight categories.
This reduction meant the African tournament had very limited slots, and only the gold medalists in each weight category earned the right to represent the continent in Paris. This made it extremely difficult for any Ugandan boxer to secure a spot, especially since the Ugandan team started their preparations very late. All six boxers who represented the country in the Dakar qualifiers were eliminated early on.
This left the Ugandan team with only two qualification windows to get any Olympians for the Paris Games: Busto Arsizio, Italy, and Bangkok, Thailand. When the Ugandan team left for Italy, all four boxers still faced strong competition.
“As expected, our last boxer in the Olympic qualifiers is out. No boxer has qualified for the Olympics in Italy. We have one more and last chance to qualify a boxer into the Olympics with the 3rd and last Olympic qualifier in May 2024 in Thailand,” Moses Muhangi, the Uganda Boxing Federation President, said after the qualifiers in Italy.
The series of disappointments began when Shafick Mawanda lost by a walkover to Singapore’s Teo Wei Xuan in the men’s 51kg category due to his failure to reach the venue on time. Muhangi attributed this to the organizing committee’s failure to provide a team manager to travel with the contingent.
Later, Yusuf Nkobeza lost to Romania’s Andrei Aradoaie 5-0 in the men’s 80kg round of 64 preliminaries, leaving the burden on Captain Tukamuhebwa and female boxer Emily Nakalema, who were also eliminated.
Before being knocked out, Tukamuhebwa had been the only beacon of hope after winning his first two bouts. He defeated Guatemala’s Garcia Edgar in the preliminary stage of the men’s 63kgs category before defeating Romania’s Robert Jitaru by a split decision to qualify for the round of 16, where he eventually lost to Jordan’s Alkasbeh Obada.
On her side, Emily Nakalema, who had earlier received a bye, lost to Cape Verde’s Ivanusa Moreira 5-0 in the women’s 66 kg category. “I hope this time around our bosses at the National Council of Sports and Uganda Olympic Committee will listen to us as a Federation and support us fully as required with no interference,” Muhangi said earlier.
This competition represented Uganda’s second-to-last opportunity for the four-boxer team to secure at least one of the 49 qualification slots for the Paris Summer Olympic Games. However, they failed to qualify and hoped for success in the Bangkok qualifiers.
In Bangkok, Uganda’s final attempt involved three representatives: former Olympian Shadir Musa Bwogi, Muzamir Kakande, and Australia-based star Regarn Ssimbwa. Unfortunately, none of the three secured any of the 28 available slots for male boxers.
Heavyweight boxer Ssimbwa, who had shown potential after advancing to the round of 16, ultimately lost to American Jamar Talley 5-0, ending Uganda’s hopes of having a boxer at the Paris Summer Games.
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