The Wider Image: Japanese boxing nurse has Olympic dream crushed by COVID
Arisa Tsubata, 27, a nurse and a boxer, trains with Tomoko Okada, her trainer at Tajima boxing gym in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, April 15, 2021. Tsubata has trained around her work shifts for over a year to prepare for a final Olympic boxing qualifier in the hope of making it to the Tokyo Games this summer. That dream was shattered earlier this year after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to cancel the boxing qualifiers due to take place in June and to allocate spots based on the rankings of recent years instead. "It's very disappointing," said Tsubata. "I had been working so hard for a year after the postponement of the Olympics and it's so frustrating that I don't even have the right to compete." REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon SEARCH "NURSE BOXER" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES