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≡ WORLD BOXING ≡
“World Boxing has approved applications from eight more National Federations to take its membership to 68 countries.”
Friday’s announcement welcomed France, Croatia, Poland, Iran, Malaysia, Nepal, Turkmenistan and Samoa, bringing the World Boxing total higher, but still short of what would be an automatic approval of recognition by the International Olympic Committee at the March Session in Greece.
So far, World Boxing membership by region includes:
● 23: Asia
● 19: Europe
● 17: Americas
● 6: Oceania
● 3: Africa
World Boxing President Boris van der Vorst (NED) observed:
“It is clear that the only way that boxing will be on the programme for LA2028 is for National Federations to support World Boxing and I invite all boxing leaders that care about the future of the sport and their boxers to apply for membership of our organisation as we continue to grow and go from strength to strength.”
IOC President Thomas Bach (GER) has said that if boxing is to be contested at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, a decision on a new International Federation should be taken by the end of the first quarter of 2025. That makes the target the 144th IOC Session in Greece from 18-21 March.
The sport has been without a governing federation since the IOC de-recognized the International Boxing Association at a special Session in June 2023. And the IOC has been pushing national federations away from the IBA, noting in a letter to the 206 National Olympic Committees on 30 September 2024:
● “The NOCs shall no longer affiliate, or entertain any institutional relationship with, national boxing federations that are still affiliated to IBA.”
● “[T]he NOCs may decide to maintain or create an institutional relationship with any (existing or newly created) national boxing federation not affiliated to IBA, provided that such national boxing federation is affiliated, or in the process of being affiliated, or intends to affiliate, to a new international boxing federation established for the purpose of Olympic boxing.”
There is no magic number of federations which are needed for the IOC to confer recognition. However, the most recent federations to join the more-or-less “permanent” program of the Olympic Games (summer) all have more than 100 national federation members today:
● 101: International Federation of Sport Climbing
● 116: International Surfing Association
● 135: World Skate
In his 5 December news conference following the IOC Executive Board meetings, Bach explained the situation this way:
“This is in the hands of the national boxing federations, whether they want their athletes to give an opportunity to win Olympic medals or not. It’s very easy and, there, we see there is some moves with a number of federations. We are watching this and when the time comes, we have to make, like for any recognition, a provisional recognition of any International Federation, we have to make an assessment whether there is a federation – and in this moment, it looks like the only one it could be is World Boxing – whether they are meeting the criteria which we have for such situations.
“And there, to be very clear, it cannot be IBA [International Boxing Association]. This story is over, for all the reasons: governance, ethical reasons, you know.”
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