Why are 2 Bronze medals awarded in Combat Sports like Boxing, Judo, Wrestling and Taekwondo?
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2 Bronze medals in Combat Sports
The Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 are in full swing. The games which began on the 23rd of July have another week full of action-packed events left.
One might wonder why combat sports like Judo, Wrestling, Taekwondo, Boxing award 2 bronze medals instead of the usual one that is awarded in every other sport or event. There are a couple of reasons for the same.
Repechage is a very important term that comes into play here. It is a practice that allows participants to continue to the next round, despite failing to meet the necessary qualifications. It is also used to prevent top-ranked athletes from exiting in the very first round or in the early rounds.
Although 2 bronze medals are awarded Amateur Boxing is still an exception!
First of all, there is no proper rank based draw in sports like Judo, Taekwondo and Wrestling, unlike sports like Tennis. Hence, there is a chance of two top-ranked athletes clashing in the very first round. This will definitely lead to an exit for one of the top contenders. To prevent such happenings, the repechage was introduced.
If there are a total of 16 wrestlers, the ones losing in the very first round and the second round, will go to the first round of repechage, with the winner of that round (first repechage round), meeting the loser of the semi-final, for the Bronze medal match. This is applicable for the first 8 of the lot. The same happens with the next 8 wrestlers. So two sets of repechages, and hence two Bronze medals. This is usually the case, since there are only four rounds in combat sports at the Olympics (Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Finals).
However, things are quite different in Boxing. There are no repechage matches in Boxing. However, 2 Bronze medals are still awarded. The reason for the same began at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics when only Gold and Silver medals were awarded in Boxing, and the losers in the semi-finals were only awarded the Olympic Diploma. This tradition was changed at the Melbourne Olympics 1956. And, since then two bronze medals are being awarded.
Boxers have a jam-packed schedule and usually, semi-final bouts tend to be draining with the loser usually sapped off his energy. Since, the down and out boxers, cannot turn up in quick succession for the Bronze medal match. Hence, they decided to guarantee a medal each for the top 4.
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Gerard Crispin
(3318 Articles Published)