South Asian MuayThai eyeing to future Olympics

By Oken Jeet Sandham

Thailand is one country where most of the foreigners thronged not only to see the MuayThai fights but to participate themselves in the fights. Foreigners are free to take part in this one of the most distinguished fighting arts of Thailand, Muyathai. The world normally calls Bangkok, the national capital of Thailand, as a fight city. People from all over the world have come to this fight city to earn through fights. Even in earlier history, even the foreigners were also featured. In 1778, during the reign of King Rama 1, two French brothers arrived in the Kingdom of Siam. They were boxers who had made a reputation for themselves by defeating local boxers across Indo-China. They came to challenge the Thais, who accepted. The purse was high at 50 chang, about 4000 Baht.

The illustrious history of MuayThai will continue as it receives greater recognition and gains in international popularity. In India, MuayThai has become so popular following participation in the last 13th Bangkok Asian Games 1998 by Indian Amateur MuayThai team led by me, who am the founder President of the MuayThai Federation of India. Two players--L Thoiba Singh and Md Alauddin Shah got bronze medals while I and O Manglemjao performed as referee during the Games. This participation in the Asian Games in 1998 by Indian Amateur MuayThai became history in Indian MuayThai because it was for the first time Amateur MuayThai was introduced in the Games. We are rather pioneer of the sort in not only in India but South Asian countries.

Although I had established my contacts with the World MuayThai officials in Bangkok in late eighties particularly through late Mr Buneayan, I was the first Indian who became the official Member of the World MuayThai Council when the Council was formally inaugurated on September 25, 1995 at the United Nations Hall, Bangkok. The first President of this World MuayThai body was General Wimol Wongwanich, the then Royal Thai Army Chief. General Wongwanich in his inaugural speech said ,“At this place which is the focal point of a mission for the world peace and in the midst of distinguished witnesses from various countries all over the world who are present here—to succeed to the intention of the Thai ancestors who created the identity of MuayThai; to safeguard the excellence of the fighting art; to maintain the justice of the long lasting tradition of fighting; to foster common interests in supporting MuayThai to become a universal sport; and to nurture the most special identity of MuayThai so that it will continue being an invaluable culture legacy and sport of Thailand and of the world”.

Today Indian MuayThai has already been in the map of the World MuayThai and its activities have been acknowledged widely by various MuayThai leaders of the world. Indian MuayThai leaders regularly join almost all the official events initiated by the World MuayThai Council and International Federation of MuayThai Amateur, Bangkok. It is not easy for the leaders of the World MuayThai Council to get Amateur MuayThai included in the Asian Games and future Olympic Games as well. But certainly it is going in the right direction with the cooperation of MuayThai representatives from world over.

"During the past 3 decades, the greatest phenomenon in the world was the recognition of MuayThai as the sport of the global community due to the ever-increasing number of MuayThai practitioners worldwide", said General Chetta Thanajaro, President of the World MuayThai Council in a message on the recent IFMA World Cup 2002 from July 19 to 25 in Bangkok. "During this time, MuayThai and western-style boxing were recognized separately as Eastern and Western Boxing. As a result, there are 2 distinct styles of boxing: one is MuayThai, the representative of the Orient and the other is Western Boxing, the representative of the Occident".

To pave the way for MuayThai’s entry into the Olympics, General Thanajaro said all the participating countries here today needed to "cooperate with each other towards for popularization of MuayThai". "Through our love and dedication to MuayThai, we hope that one day we will reach our dreams", he stated. "I personally hope to see MuayThai in the Olympic Games in the near future".

The President of the International Federation of MuayThai Amateur, General Vorayudh Messomonta also informed the MuayThai representatives of fifty countries attending IFMA World Meeting held during the IFMA World Cup 2002 that IFMA was the only organization that had the privilege of having Royal Patronage thereby "no one will be able to organize any tournament such as World Cup 2002". "If any organization organizes they are doing so against the Royal Highness", the IFMA President cautioned.

General Mesommonta also disclosed that Amateur MuayThai under IFMA had already been recognized by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and it (Amateur MuayThai) was in the process of being pushed to the future Olympic events. It has already been included in the 13th Asian Games in 1998.

With this new development, we believe that most of the MuayThai players from the Himalayan Sub-continent will get privilege to participate in the future Olympic Games and most probably during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing because we are expecting the art to be introduced during the Games.

(The writer is president of the MuayThai Federation of India)