Newly-appointed Indian ladies’s boxing head coach Santiago Nieva believes the present squad is brimming with potential, as he units sights on creating historical past by going “past a bronze medal” on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Nieva, who earlier served as India’s high-performance director from 2017 to 2022 and labored predominantly with the boys’s crew, returns to the nation in a brand new capability, to form the way forward for the ladies’s squad.

“The Indian ladies’s crew is admittedly robust and I feel it’s vital to win these Olympic medals that weren’t attainable to safe in Paris,” Nieva informed PTI from Australia.

“So, I assumed that with the potential there’s with the ladies’s crew and all these wonderful boxers, I wish to contribute there in order that we will make historical past in LA and transcend a single bronze medal.”

To this point, solely three Indian boxers have received Olympic medals — Vijender Singh (2008), MC Mary Kom (2012) and Lovlina Borgohain (2020) — and all of them have been bronze. Within the final version at Paris, Indian pugilists returned empty-handed.

Nieva is not any stranger to breaking new floor. Beneath his steering, Amit Panghal received India’s first and solely silver medal within the males’s World Championships, whereas the nation additionally achieved its highest-ever participation on the Tokyo Olympics. He joins forward of a demanding 2026 season filled with main occasions, together with the Asian Video games and Commonwealth Video games. One of many first issues on his agenda will probably be “tackling” the choice coverage. “I have to see what mannequin they’re utilizing and the way it works in concept. The vital factor is that we choose one of the best boxers in order that we don’t miss out on one of the best boxers.

“Then you must see what’s sensible with all of the worldwide calendar occurring. It’s a must to see what is taken into account honest among the many boxers or the neighborhood and choices shouldn’t be biased. There are plenty of elements to bear in mind.”

The Boxing Federation of India’s present choice coverage states that “based mostly on sure circumstances, BFI might select between choice trials or analysis.”

“There are completely different fashions and there are various kinds of competitions the place you would possibly use completely different techniques. Nevertheless it’s manner too early for me to take a position. I’ve no blueprint in the mean time. I’m certain that will probably be one of many first issues that we have to sort out earlier than the Commonwealth and Asian Video games.”

Nieva, who is anticipated to formally start his tenure in a few month’s time after finishing visa formalities, stated he doesn’t intend to make sweeping modifications immediately given the nice run of the boxers.

Indian ladies boxers have loved a robust run this yr, returning with 4 medals, together with two gold from the World Championships.