International Boxing Federation: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has kicked the International Boxing Association (IBA), the international governing body of amateur boxing, out of the Olympic system.
The decision was approved during the Extraordinary IOC Session on Thursday, after the IOC’s executive board proposed earlier this month that the IBA be deprived of recognition.
The judgement was approved by a vote of 69-1, with 10 members abstaining.
It is the first time the IOC has removed the governing body of a sport.
Long-standing worries about the boxing federation’s governance, finances, and officiating led to this, following the IOC’s initial suspension of the organisation in 2019.
“We place a high value on the sport of boxing. We have a very serious problem with the IBA because of their governance,” stated IOC president Thomas Bach during their online meeting.
The struggling boxing organisation has already clashed with the IOC.
Concerns over fight rigging and officiating prompted reform calls.
Under the leadership of Russia’s Umar Kremlev, an opponent was denied the ability to run against him in an election for the position of president.
Sponsorship from Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom drew even more criticism, as did the IBA’s decision to allow Russian and Belarussian athletes to compete under their national flags following Ukraine’s invasion.
Only this week, the IOC criticised Kremlev for declaring that one of his predecessors, former IOC member CK Wu, should be “shot” for “killing boxing” with the help of Bach and IOC sports director Kit McConnell.
The IBA had termed the IOC board’s suggestion “truly abhorrent and purely political” and attempted to have it overturned through an urgent appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the sport’s top court, which rejected the appeal on Tuesday.
An IOC Task Force will oversee the boxing event at the Paris 2024 Games, as it did at the last Olympics in Tokyo, although the sport’s long-term future at the Olympics has been called into question.
Boxing has been left off the preliminary sports schedule for the 2028 Olympic Games, putting the sport at risk of losing its Olympic status for good.
On Thursday, though, Bach expressed his support for the sport itself. “We value boxing as one of the most international sports. We embrace boxing’s values,” he stated, citing the sport’s “important social role in promoting inclusion.”
He went on to say, “The boxers fully deserve to be governed by an international federation with integrity and transparency.”
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