POLISH WOMEN'S BOXING OLIMPIC HOPEFULS
Three of Poland's 2012 Summer Olympic Women's Boxing hopefuls will be at Global Boxing Gym in North Bergen, NJ on Saturday, November 13 at 10 a.m. to meet the press. The three women warriors will finish up training at the spacious, state-of-the-art training facility before competing in the first-ever Women’s International Dual Series from November 16-20 at the Oxnard Police Athletic League in Oxnard, California.
Flyweight Karolina Michalczuk, lightweight Karolina Graczyk and middleweight Lidia Fidura are all vying to be among the first group of women to compete in Olympic boxing at the London Games in 2012. Poland is one of five countries to contribute to the 22 women scheduled to compete, which includes the United States, Canada, Spain and Hungary. The group will be coached by Leszek Piotrowski.
Michalczuk, 31, captured bronze in this year's World Boxing Championships in Barbados and won a silver in 2006 at New Delhi in India. Graczyk, 24, and Fidura, 20, also took home bronze medals in Barbados this year.
Their four day stay in New York City is being sponsored by the Polish-American Sports Association.
"We're absolutely fascinated with these Polish women," says Elizabeth Dobrowolski, Vice President of the Polish-American Sports Association. "We're very happy that the Olympic committee has finally decided to allow women to compete in the Summer Games. We're confident that these women will make Poland and women all around the world proud."
"With women's boxing making its Olympic debut at the 2012 Olympic Games, creating international competition opportunities for our elite women is critical," said USA Boxing Interim Executive Director Anthony Bartkowski said. "USA Boxing Women's Task Force Chair and AIBA Women's Commission Member Christy Halbert and her team have done a great job in putting together a competition that will create a valuable competitive experience for our athletes and the international boxers in attendance."
North American Boxing Federation Women's Boxing champion Maureen Shea, who is also the president of Global Boxing, is also pleased that women's amateur boxing is finally getting it's day in the sun.
"I think its very important because people will finally be able to see these talented women," says Shea. "They're getting the experience of competing internationally at the highest level. People are getting to see how hard these women work and how talented they are."
