Mandy Bujold Wins a Big Fight Prior to Competing at the 2021 Olympics
Mandy Bujold is a Canadian amateur boxer, whose career was launched following a successful 2006 when she claimed the Canadian National Championship and Boxer of the Year titles. Mandy's achievements include 11 Canadian National Championships, three Continental Championships, a Gold medal at the first Pan American Games and a Bronze medal at the first Commonwealth Games that included women’s boxing. During the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games Mandy  became the only female boxer in history to win two Pan American Games titles. She was an ambassador for the Pan American Games 2015 and represented Canada at the 2016 Olympics.
After the 2016 Olympic Games, Mandy decided that it was time to start her family and made a plan with her husband that involved proper timing to attend the 2020 Tokyo Games. Mandy had her daughter Kate in 2018 and then planned to get back into training before she would have to attend national and international qualifying events which were to be held in 2020. 

Prior to these events taking place, the COVID-19 pandemic struck and shortly after, the decision was made to postpone the Tokyo Olympics. A qualifying tournament in Argentina was also postponed and eventually cancelled in April.

This left the IOC having to determine how athletes would qualify for this summer’s Olympics.

The body chose to use previous events from 2019 and 2018. Since those were the years in which she had her daughter and was preparing her body for the return to competition, this left Bujold sidelined in the athlete selection for the Canadian Olympic Team.

"My name is Mandy Bujold. I am a Canadian Olympic athlete and a loving mother to my beautiful two-year-old daughter Kate. But because I am both of those things at once, my Olympic dream was nearly taken away from me." -Mandy Bujold, CBC News

Mandy Bujold then started the process of writing a formal letter to give The IOC the opportunity to widen the criteria, based on these unforeseen circumstances. When no response was received to their initial letter, Bujold and her lawyer, Sylvie Rodrigue filed an appeal to the International Olympic Committee which they lost earlier this year. 

“The legal angle for Mandy is not a fairness issue, it’s a human rights violation, violation of the Olympic charter issue because of the pregnancy, which we think is different — it’s in a different category,” -Sylvie Rodrigue, Global News

 

 Video Courtesy of Global News

The fight did not end there. Next, the Canadian Olympic Committee and Boxing Canada had appealed to the IOC on Bujold’s behalf. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has ruled that the qualification criteria must include an accommodation for women who were pregnant or postpartum during the qualification period and Bujold won the appeal.

"It is a great ending," Bujold said. "We fought hard for it, we did everything within our control, we literally left it on the ring, it’s probably the easiest way to say it." -Mandy Bujold, Sportsnet

Bujold, a two-time Pan American Games champion, will be the first woman to box for Canada at consecutive Olympics. Boxing events at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo kick off July 24th, with boxing events for men and women running until August 8th. We look forward to watching all the members of Team Canada compete and wish them the best of luck! 

Mandy Bujold - Women's 51kg

Caroline Veyre - Women's 57kg

Myriam Da Silva - Women's 69kg

Tammara Thibeault - Women's 75kg

Wyatt Sanford - Men's 69kg