Arisa Tsubata had been training around her work shifts as a nurse for over a year to prepare for an Olympic boxing qualifier in hopes of making it to the Tokyo Games this summer.
That dream was shattered after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) canceled the qualifier — scheduled to take place in June — and said it would allocate spots to athletes based on their world rankings in recent years.
The change in criteria has effectively shut the door on many Olympic hopefuls, such as Tsubata, whose rankings are not good enough for automatic qualification. Other qualifying competitions have also been canceled.