Olympic boxing’s IBA is out, but matches are still scheduled for the Paris Games
International Boxing Association’s participation in Olympic competitions is no longer recognized by the International Olympic Committee.
The International Boxing Association (IBA) has been expelled from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for failing to finish changes including governance, finances, and ethical issues.
On Thursday, 69 members of the IOC voted in support of banishing the IBA, with only one member voting against it. Ten members didn’t participate in the voting.
The executive board, which is led by IOC President Thomas Bach, advocated the IOC’s decision two weeks ago, thus it seemed inevitable that it would be adopted.
However, boxing will continue to be an Olympic event at the 2024 Paris Games.
“We place a great priority on the boxing sport. Because of their administration, we have a very significant issue with IBA,” Bach informed the IOC members during their online meeting.
The IOC had issues with the IBA’s management, which included Russian and Uzbek presidents, as well as its financial support from the Russian government’s energy company, Gazprom, as well as the fairness of the competition and the judging.
“The boxers fully deserve to be governed by an international federation with integrity and transparency,” the IOC president declared.
National boxing federations chose Gafur Rakhimov as their head in 2018, defying IOC warnings. The Uzbek businessman was reportedly connected to heroin trafficking and organized crime. The choice of Umar Kremlev to succeed Rakhimov in 2020 came after yet another series of election-related IOC cautions that went unheeded.
Under Kremlev, the IBA’s debts of close to $20 million were paid off, and the IOC took issue with the boxing federation’s reliance on Gazprom, a Russian energy company.
The IBA was no longer backed by Gazprom, Kremlev said last month during the men’s world championships, and his language towards Olympic authorities became increasingly combative.
As it did for the Tokyo Games in 2021, the IOC is already in charge of organizing boxing competitions at the Paris Olympics without consulting the IBA.
It was unclear if boxers competing for national federations who continue to be IBA members would be considered eligible for the Paris competition.
Boxing’s inclusion in the Olympic program for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, which the IOC and Bach withheld as leverage against the IBA, may now be confirmed as a result of the action. Members were assured on Thursday that boxing is “guaranteed” to take place in Los Angeles.
The IOC may now cooperate with World Boxing, a rival organization founded this year with backing from authorities in the United States, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, as the connection with the IBA has now come to an end.
The IBA may appeal the judgment to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after labelling it a “tremendous error” on Thursday.
The Lausanne-based IBA said in a statement that the expulsion was “catastrophic for global boxing” and “blatantly contradicts the IOC’s claims of acting in the best interests of boxing and athletes.”
Picture Courtesy: Google/images are subject to copyright