Indian women’s boxing coach targets early Olympic quotas for LA 2028

Indian women’s boxing coach Santiago Nieva has shifted focus towards securing early Olympic quotas for the Los Angeles 2028 Games, following the team’s notable performance at the 2026 Asian Games where they won three medals, including two golds.

The first major opportunity for Olympic qualification will be at the 2027 World Championships in Kazakhstan. Nieva emphasised the importance of obtaining as many quotas as possible at this event. “The first qualifier will be in Kazakhstan, which is the World Championships, where ideally we get as many quotas there as possible,” he said. He added that subsequent qualification events will include the Asian Olympic Qualifier, followed by two more Olympic qualifiers in 2028.

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At the 2026 Asian Games, Indian boxers Lovlina Borgohain (women’s 75 kg), Parveen Hooda (women’s 65 kg), and Ankush Panghal (men’s 80 kg) secured gold medals, with Priya Ghanghas winning bronze in the women’s 60 kg category. This represented India’s best-ever gold medal tally in the continental competition.

Coach Nieva acknowledged the team’s recent successes, including six medals, five of which were gold, at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and three medals at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya. He highlighted the benefit of early Olympic qualification, citing it would allow ample time for focused preparation. “Ideally if we get to qualify next year early on, we get a good preparation time,” Nieva said. “It will be a tough pathway, and hopefully we can qualify as many boxers as possible so we can form a strong team for the Olympics.”

Nieva, who served as the High Performance Director of Indian Boxing from 2017 to 2021, returned as the National Women’s Team Head Coach in 2025. He credited the team’s success this year to a year-long preparation programme featuring rigorous international competition, domestic training camps, and quality sparring.

The Indian women’s boxing team has trained extensively at the Sports Authority of India National Centre of Excellence in Patiala, supported by a dedicated staff of around 40 personnel, including approximately 20 coaches and 20 support staff members. “We have improvements in all areas, sports science, the boxing hall, the boxing equipment and so on,” Nieva noted. He believes the training environment in India is comparable to the best boxing programmes worldwide, stating, “I would say there are not many countries who have better support.”

Prior to the Asian Games, India hosted training sessions for the Dominican Republic and Iran teams in Patiala before relocating to Japan for final preparations and quality sparring. Reflecting on the preparations, Nieva said, “We had a good final preparation in Japan where we also got good sparring. We came very well prepared for the Asian Games. Having said that, we cannot rest on this. We have to continue looking forward and in the end we all want great success at the next Olympics.”