After winning the USA Boxing Women’s Championship title in 50kg weight class last year, the two-time Golden Gloves medalist from a country that has the most Olympic golds, Zinnat Ferdous was preparing herself to represent Bangladesh instead of the United States.
Born and brought up in Pabna and Nawabganj, Zinnat’s parents moved to New York in the late 1980s during the political unrest of Bangladesh’s last military government.
They transmitted the Bangali traditions and values to their daughter who can speak the language fluently and talks about eating traditional rice at home.
Her choice to play for Bangladesh in the Olympics has faced a major setback after both options for Paris tickets ended in dismal fashion.
It is not her first time representing Bangladesh as she did so in the Asian Games last year.
It was her debut Asiad which took place in Hangzhou, China, playing for Bangladesh in first major competition.
Bangladesh Amateur Boxing Federation officials though were full of doubt regarding Zinnat’s potential while justifying their decision to select her name as secondary option for wildcards, let alone qualifying drama.
“Salim (Salim Hossain) finished fifth at Asian Games while Zinnat got out from second round. So we put Salim on top (for wildcards),” a BABF official told Dhaka Tribune at the federation’s office in Dhaka.
He wished to remain anonymous but a similar response came from the federation’s general secretary Mazharul Islam Tuhin over phone.
Also Read: Part 1: US-based Bangladeshi boxer Zinnat’s Olympic dream shattered due to federation’s fiasco
Zinnat’s sudden and rapid rise in the boxing scenario is a thing of wonder.
She started boxing at the age of 27 and showed massive growth and development under Colin Morgan, a professional boxer with 40 years of experience training top international champions.
Her gold winning campaign in the inaugural Mandela South African Boxing Cup last April was one of the testimonies of her progress and consistency in the game which perhaps came too late for the federation who picked the lone wildcard with the deadline set on January 15, 2024.
With two titles in 2024, Zinnat is currently 30 years old while Salim is 32 and without a single international competition to his name this year.
For a long time known as “wildcard” in Bangladesh’s sports fraternity, the Universality Places are a lifeline to athletes from underrepresented National Olympic Committees and for those who miss the qualification rounds.
According to a source, Bangladesh Olympic Association proposed the names of six athletes at the deadline for eligible No Objection Certificates, to be submitted to the Tripartite Commission for Universality Places.
Among them, five are men and only one is woman.
Several BOA officials were interviewed to learn on what basis the athletes were selected for wildcards.
The replies were mostly about performance, ranking/rating and achievements but the federation’s role also came into question.
Also Read: Part 2: Amateur Boxing Federation hapless in Zinnat’s dilemma
For Paris Games Universality Places, the BOA selected four sports disciplines apart from athletics and swimming.
They are golf, shooting, archery, and boxing.
Golf and shooting earned two places each.
The lone woman’s name came from shooting but she was not accepted by the Tripartite Commission when they confirmed NOCs of allocated Universality Places earlier this week.
Bangladesh is set to be on the Paris Olympics stage with one female athlete out of total five in the contingent.
She is a swimmer whose name was allocated through World Athletics.
The Tripartite Commission gave the green signal to only one Bangladesh player out of six but the boxing federation had all the opportunities to double it if it had chosen Zinnat’s name.
Also Read: Double-gold winner Zinnat: Only Paris Olympics is in my mind
The Boxing Federation should have known that the Olympic Commission considers criteria such as universal representation, athlete eligibility and technical level, balance between continents and genders while finalizing the Universality Places.
Consequently, Bangladesh missed out on a golden chance to achieve something significant through Zinnat at the Summer Olympics, a world stage where the country’s athletes have historically underperformed.