National Women's Boxing Team Head Coach Santiago Nieva has set his sights firmly on the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, with early qualification at the 2027 World Championships in Kazakhstan the immediate priority following a landmark 2026 campaign for Indian women's boxing.

A Season to Build On

Indian women boxers closed out their 2026 international calendar in commanding fashion. The team returned from the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya with three medals, including two gold, capping a season that also featured a six-medal haul — five of them gold — at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The back-to-back multi-sport successes represent one of the most productive years in the programme's recent history.

The Qualification Roadmap

Nieva has mapped out a clear pathway toward Los Angeles. 'The first qualifier will be in Kazakhstan, which is the World Championships, where ideally we get as many quotas there as possible,' he said. 'Later on, there will be the Asian Olympic Qualifier and 2028 will have another two Olympic Qualifiers.'

Securing berths at the earliest opportunity, he explained, is not merely about certainty — it is about preparation time. 'Ideally, if we get to qualify next year early on, we get a good preparation time,' Nieva continued. '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.'

The Infrastructure Behind the Results

Nieva, who previously served as High Performance Director of Indian Boxing from 2017 to 2021 before rejoining the setup in 2025, credited the team's consistency to a robust support ecosystem centred on the Sports Authority of India's (SAI) National Centre of Excellence in Patiala. 'We have a staff of 40 people working with the boxers, around 20 coaches and another 20 support staff,' he said, adding that improvements span sports science, the boxing hall, and equipment. 'I would say there are not many countries that have better support,' he noted.

Beyond the domestic base, India expanded its sparring pool by hosting teams from Dominican Republic and Iran in Patiala before the squad travelled to Japan for its final pre-Asian Games preparation camp. 'We had a good final preparation in Japan where we also got good sparring. We came very well prepared for the Asian Games,' Nieva said.

What Comes Next

With the Asian Games chapter closed, the challenge for Indian women's boxing is to convert the momentum of 2026 into a structured Olympic build-up. 'We cannot rest on this. We have to continue looking forward, and in the end we all want great success at the next Olympics,' Nieva added. The 2027 World Championships in Kazakhstan will be the first concrete measure of whether India can translate domestic depth into Olympic-level qualification numbers.