On the ropes for four years, Olympic boxing risks the K.-O. After four years of conflict, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) excluded, Thursday, June 22, the International Boxing Federation (IBA) from the Olympic world, but maintains the “noble art” on the menu of the 2024 Olympic Games (Paris) and 2028 (Los Angeles).
The Olympic body has “no problem with boxing or with boxers”, said IOC President Thomas Bach, on the occasion of the 140th session of the IOC. On the other hand, the organization based in Lausanne (Switzerland) had the IBA in its sights for a long time.
Discredited by repeated arbitration scandals, an abysmal debt and a former leader considered by the United States as “one of the leaders of organized crime” Uzbek, the body governing international boxing was convened in early June, and saw the IOC Executive Board “withdraw [its] recognition” – following a vote (69 votes for, one against and ten abstentions). Already “suspended” since June 2019, the IBA definitively loses the organization of the Olympic boxing tournaments, as well as the resources allocated by the IOC for this occasion, and will now have to live on its own funds.
As the threat of the exclusion of the noble art from Olympic competitions became serious, the IBA had proclaimed its desire for reform, notably electing in December 2020 a new president, the Russian Umar Kremlev. But in a report released in early June, the IOC unapologetically found that not only had the IBA “failed to meet the conditions” set for his reinstatement, but had gone so far as to “bullying “; in particular when the IOC took away the organization of the Paris 2024 Olympic tournament after having done the same for Tokyo 2021.
A new federation has recently emerged
“The IOC has constantly and patiently tried to help with the issues of concern”, but the IBA “was not able to provide the elements allowing the lifting of its suspension”, justified Christophe De Kepper, the director General of the IOC, Thursday.
The Olympic body also deplores the continued financial dependence of the IBA on the Russian giant Gazprom, its main sponsor brought by Kremlev. This Vladimir Putin loyalist with a sulphurous reputation and colossal financial means was not afraid to challenge the IOC, by authorizing Russian and Belarusian boxers to fight under their own colors during the Women’s Worlds in March in India.
The fall of the IBA coincides with the emergence of a new player, the international federation World Boxing, founded by several Western federations and already joined by those of the United States and Switzerland. Great Britain, the Netherlands and New Zealand have announced that they want to follow suit. “Boxers fully deserve to be led by an international federation governed by integrity and transparency,” insisted Thomas Bach on Thursday.
However, boxing, a historic Olympic sport, is not banned from the Olympics. “The sport of boxing is very important to us,” Bach said. We have an extremely serious problem with the IBA, because of its governance. The presence of the discipline at the Paris Games has been confirmed, as at those of Los Angeles (United States), in 2028, whose final sports program will not be adopted until the fall.