Maïva Hamadouche (32), winner of seven professional world championships, 2019 European amateur vice-champion and selected for the Tokyo Games, announced on Wednesday that she will aim to qualify at -60 kg for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris . However, Estelle Mossely, Olympic champion at the same weight in 2016, is determined to win gold again in 2024. But only one Frenchwoman can aim for qualification in each category.
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“Maïva’s candidacy interests us, specifies Stéphane Cottalorda, new coach of the French women’s team, because there is not much competition in France at -60 kg. And the unknown is: Will Estelle be able to make weight again? She had told us that she would do the world championships last May, but she hadn’t done them in the end. She told us that she is dedicated to her professional career until the end of the year, but that she will return to the France team in 2023. But if the first tournament counting for the Olympic ranking on January 5 has place (we don’t know, since the IOC has taken over the Olympic qualification from the world boxing federation), it is Maïva who will go there, because Estelle will not be ready. »
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“If Estelle is to come back, she must take Maïva as a serious competitor”
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Hamadouche has already found the France team during an internship in June in Istres. “Maïva will play the Polish tournament in September, says Cottalorda, in order to gauge it with a view to selecting it or not for the European championships in October. If Estelle is to come back, she must take Maïva as a serious competitor. »
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With professionals allowed at the Games, Hamadouche had managed to qualify for Tokyo where she was beaten by Finland’s Potkonen on a controversial points decision in the first round of -60 kg. Back with the pros (ten two-minute rounds, instead of three three-minute rounds of Olympic boxing), the Frenchwoman lost her IBF title on points against the American Mikaela Mayer, WBO defender, in November 2021 in Las Vegas, in the super featherweight unification world championship (-58.967 kg). Their duel was going to be named “most spectacular women’s fight of the year”.
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“I keep a bitterness from my adventure in Tokyo, because I deserved to go further, believes Hamadouche. I have the level to have a medal in Paris. I’m not closing the door to professional boxing, but I intend to do my best to qualify for Paris. »
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Mossely (29), mother of two little boys and divorced from Tony Yoka, is also a professional, winner of her ten fights (including one before the limit). She did not react to Hamadouche’s decision to target Paris 2024 because, according to those around her, “Estelle is not currently communicating”.
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