By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Nieva Tesoro Embuldeniya, a 58 year old Filipina married to a Sri Lankan and now living in Sri Lanka played a major role in getting the International Olympic Committee to approve women’s boxing in the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Nieva Embuldeniya who created history by becoming the first woman to be elected to the Executive Council of the InternatiOnal Boxing Association or AIBA in its 62-year old history at the Annual Congress held in San Domingo in the Dominican Republic.
The Filipina served as Vice Chairperson of the AIBA Women’s Commission under Chairperson Joyce Coreen Bowen of Barbados who worked tirelessly to obtain IOC approval for women’s boxing to be included in the Olympic Games.
AIBA Media Director Richard Baker told BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports that “The AIBA Women's Commission was instrumental in putting forward a comprehensive proposal” to the IOC.
Both the Philippines and Sri Lanka have commended Embuldeniya for bringing honor to both countries. She has been involved in the sport for over 22 years.
A graduate of the University of Sto Tomas, Nieva Embuldenoya lived and worked in Canada for some 30 years as a Specialized Laboratory Analyst. She became interested in boxing after her marriage to Herbert Embuldeniya who himself is a well-known figure in the boxing scene.
She was the first lady to be appointed as an International Boxing Judge and has served as a jude for over 22 years mostly in boxing bouts featuring men. She has been also a member of the Executive Council of the Federation of Asian Amateur Boxing Associations and the only lady to be appointed to this post. She was also one of the members of the jury at the Women’s World Boxing Championships held in India and was also a member of the Jury for the Asian Men's Boxing Championship held in Mongolia.
Having worked in Canada for 30 years, she is now domiciled in Sri Lanka and takes an immense interest in improvement of the standard of boxing in Sri Lanka and was one of the pioneers to encourage Sri Lanka Army women to take to boxing in 2000.
She is a popular figure at local boxing championships in Sri Lankla officiating as a Judge and Jury.
Her husband Herbert Embuldeniya burst on to the amateur boxing scene in Canada in a big way in 1969.
A Canadian internet site said Herbert Enbukldeniya’s “list of achievements as a boxing judge in the provincial, national and international arenas is long. His leadership as an executive on some of the world’s most influential governing bodies in the sport and the honors he has received globally are impressive.
Boxers, trainers and others in the sport speak glowingly of his integrity, his concern for the athletes’ well-being in a game that can be physically punishing, his attention to detail and his insistence that the rules of the game be followed by all involved, including judges. In 1992, he was elected to the International Executive Committee of Boxing; the first Canadian to serve on this group.
Embuldeniya boxed at the University of Sri Lanka, winning a gold medal as a flyweight at that level. He moved to Manitoba in 1968 and by 1969, was a judge for the International Amateur Boxing Association when Canada took on the U.S. in Toronto.
