BFI appoints Santiago Nieva as women's national team head coach

NEW DELHI: Boxing Federation of India (BFI) has appointed Santiago Nieva as the head coach of the women’s national boxing team.

The Swedish tactician, who previously served as India’s High Performance Director from 2017 to 2021, steps back into the system with the mandate to elevate the team further as the nation enters a crucial new Olympic cycle.

Nieva’s previous tenure with India left a lasting imprint on the country’s high-performance structure.

Under his guidance, Indian boxing earned two podium finishes at the 2019 Men’s World Championships—Amit Panghal’s historic silver and Manish Kaushik’s bronze—before the nation fielded its largest-ever Olympic boxing squad at Tokyo 2020, where Lovlina Borgohain secured the bronze medal.

With the Los Angeles 2028 cycle intensifying and Olympic parity across seven women’s divisions, Nieva will work on establishing Indian women as consistent global medal contenders across all weight categories.