The Irish sport world is in shock this afternoon at news that Katie Taylor has lost her first fight in 5 years, in the semifinal of the European Olympics qualifiers. However, this does not mean that Taylor's Rio dreams are shattered. Here's how Katie Taylor can qualify for the Olympics.
The World Elite championships will be held in Astana and begin on May 17.
- The top 4 boxers (ie all semi-finalists) will qualify for the Rio Olympics
- If any of the finalists are already qualified via the continental route, they will qualify through the WC and therefore their continental spots must be re-allocated. Effectively this means that if Yana Alekseevna of Azerbaijan (Katie's conqueror) or Irma Testa of Italy qualify for the semis, then their European spots are up from grabs.
Taylor will fight on Sunday in a box-off with Svetlana Staneva of Bulgaria. That is to decide on the European Qualifier final ranking. If Taylor wins she will be ranked third. This will giver her priority over Staneva if a European spot is re-allocated as described above.
It may sound complicated but Taylor will DEFINITELY qualify for the Rio Olympics if ONE of these two things happens
- Taylor reaches World Championship semi-finals
- Alekseevna (Azerbaijan) and Testa (Italy) reach World Championship semi-finals
Winning the box off on Sunday would mean she would require only one of those two boxers to reach the semis.
These permutations are further explained here.
This defeat is Taylor's first loss since she was beaten in Bulgaria in 2011. It was also the first major international championships where her father Pete Taylor was not in her corner.
Speaking about the decision for Pete to take a step back, she told the Irish Times in February the following:
"My Dad is obviously just taking a bit of a break,” said Katie. “He decided to take that break so when he’s ready to come back I’m delighted to welcome him back. For the time being, I have a great support system around, a great infrastructure.”
In the same interview, she sounded very content with her training preparations under Zaur Antia and the high performance team:
“I’m training with Zaur the whole time, in the high performance the whole time,” said Katie. “I feel the infrastructure that I have around me is definitely getting the best out of me.
