IOC cuts ties with IBA in an attempt to save Olympic boxing
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For what is widely believed to be the first time in its 128 years of existence, the International Olympic Committee cut ties with a sport’s federation when its members voted Thursday to withdraw recognition of the scandal-plagued International Boxing Association. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The vote, which came by a 69-1 margin, had been expected since the IOC’s executive board recommended this month that the organization move on from the IBA. While Thursday’s decision leaves boxing without an official governing body, it also opens a path for World Boxing — the breakaway federation formed in April by the United States, Britain, the Netherlands and a handful of other countries — to receive IOC recognition and oversee boxing at the Olympics.
It also is the clearest sign yet that the IOC is determined to save Olympic boxing, despite having left the sport off the initial program for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games, citing continued concerns about the IBA’s leadership and the body’s refusal to make needed reforms.
The IOC has been fighting with IBA executives for years over numerous controversies, including allegations of bribery and match fixing at the 2016 Rio Olympics. It took control of the sport at the Tokyo Games held in 2021 and decided to do so again for the 2024 Paris Games, all while repeatedly warning the IBA’s leaders that the sport was in danger of being dropped altogether unless the IBA enacted reforms.
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In recent months, the IOC’s battles have mostly been with IBA President Umar Kremlev of Russia, who has been accused of manipulating elections twice to remain in power. The IOC and leaders from several national boxing associations, including USA Boxing, have been concerned that Kremlev, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is not interested in cleaning up the IBA.
On Tuesday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport denied an appeal by the IBA to overturn the IOC executive board’s recommendation.
Rhetoric between Kremlev and the IOC got nastier over the past few weeks as it had grown clear the IBA was going to be dropped. Last week, at a boxing forum in Brazil, Kremlev blamed the IBA’s problems on the organization’s former president and onetime IOC member Wu Ching-kuo, who was banned by the IBA in 2018, saying Wu is “killing Olympic boxing” and “should be shot.”
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The IOC responded Tuesday with a statement condemning “the violent and threatening language” used by Kremlev.
“Incitement of hatred and derogatory language against individuals working for the IOC, who are simply carrying out their professional roles, and against the IOC as an organisation, is simply unacceptable,” the statement read. “Making accusations against them that they are ‘covering up crimes’ is highly defamatory. Furthermore, calling for an individual linked to the IOC to be ‘shot’ is language that has no place in sport or in any normal civilised debate.”
For World Boxing to be recognized by the IOC, it needs to line up enough participating countries and file required paperwork, a process that probably will not be completed before the IOC’s November meeting during which the Los Angeles 2028 program is supposed to be finalized. The IOC, however, is motivated to keep boxing in the Olympics, in part because it provides racial, economic and geographic diversity that many other Olympic sports do not.
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“The IOC’s decision and the comments by its President make it clear that IBA will never again be allowed to organise a boxing tournament at the Olympic Games and that a new international federation — which is committed to delivering sporting integrity and operates according to the highest standards of governance, transparency and financial management — will inevitably be required to oversee future Olympic boxing tournaments,” World Boxing said in a statement following the vote.
“World Boxing supports this view and understands that being part of the Olympic Games is a privilege and not a right and is committed to working constructively and collaboratively with the IOC and all other stakeholders to develop a pathway that will preserve boxing’s long-term place on the Olympic program,” the statement continued.
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Source: The Washington Post
