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≡ WORLD BOXING APPROVED ≡
“The Executive Board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) provisionally recognised World Boxing (WB) as the International Federation (IF) within the Olympic Movement governing the sport of boxing at world level, during a remote meeting held today.”
Wednesday’s announcement, followed by a list of actions taken by World Boxing to satisfy the IOC’s requirements, all but assures that boxing will be on the program of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
It appears to also end boxing’s Olympic nightmare that threatened its removal from the program after the IOC had to step in and run the boxing competitions at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
The IOC statement added:
“The assessment concluded that World Boxing has continued to make progress regarding the identified areas of consideration in order to be recommended for IOC Provisional Recognition as the IF within the Olympic Movement governing the sport of boxing at world level.”
Official recognition can follow at the 144th IOC Session in Greece in March, and World Boxing is holding an online extraordinary Congress on Saturday (1st) to formally admit a host of new members.
It has 78 at present, with 2-3 more coming up for approval this week, bringing its total membership to 80-81 countries. The federation was, of course, delighted at the news of the IOC’s provisional recognition, with President Boris van der Vorst (NED) saying in a statement:
“This is a very significant day for everyone connected with the sport of boxing in the Olympic Movement. Keeping its place at the Olympic Games is absolutely critical to the future of our sport at every level, from the grassroots to the highest echelons of professional boxing, and this decision by the IOC takes us one step closer to our objective of seeing boxing restored to the Olympic programme.
“It has taken a huge team effort from a large number of people across the globe to get to this point and none of it would have been possible without the hard work and commitment of all of the National Federations, boxers, coaches, officials and boxing leaders that have worked together to make this possible.
“Today’s decision by the IOC is an important milestone, however everyone connected with World Boxing understands that being part of the Olympic Movement is a privilege and a responsibility and not a right. There is still a lot of work to do, and everyone is as committed as ever to continuing to work together and doing everything within our power to deliver a better future for our sport and ensuring that boxing remains at heart of the Olympic Movement.”
The action by the IOC continues the process of moving away from the calamitous mismanagement of the former recognition, AIBA, now known as the International Boxing Association:
● 2017: The IOC sent a December letter noting severe financial, governance and refereeing and judging issues to AIBA.
● 2018: In November, the IOC created an inquiry committee to determine the status of AIBA and boxing within the Olympic Movement.
● 2019: The report on AIBA resulted in the IOC’s suspension of AIBA, and set up an IOC Boxing Task Force to ensure the Tokyo 2020 Olympic tournament was held.
● 2020: In December, AIBA elected Russian Boxing Federation Secretary-General Umar Kremlev as its new President.
● 2021: In December, the initial sports program for Los Angeles 2028 was issued and did not include boxing. Also in December, AIBA changed its name to the International Boxing Association.
● 2022: In June, the Court of Arbitration for Sport held that the IBA had improperly eliminated all candidates for President other than Kremlev in its May election for a full term. Instead of holding a new election with all of the candidates, a September IBA Congress voted not to hold another election, keeping Kremlev in office. In December, the IOC announced it would again organize the boxing events at the Olympic Games, in Paris in 2024.
● 2023: Owing to a lack of progress at the IBA to its requests for financial information, governance reforms and refereeing and judging upgrades, the IOC convened a special, online Session in June and voted to remove recognition of the IBA. It was the first International Federation ever expelled from the Olympic Movement.
World Boxing’s rise came out of the ashes of the electoral chaos of the IBA in 2022, and was formed in mid-2023 and held its inaugural Congress in November 2023, with 26 members. Barely more than 15 months later, it has triple in size and received provisional recognition from the IOC and is poised to become the official governing body of boxing for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Boxing teetered on oblivion, but now is on the road back to the Games. National federations which remain affiliated with the IBA cannot participate in World Boxing events, so there will have to be decisions made by about 100 federations whether they want to be part of Olympic boxing in 2028 … or stay on the sidelines.
Boxing entered the Olympic program in 1904 in St. Louis and has been a part of every Games since, excepting Stockholm 1912 (boxing was illegal in Sweden at the time). World Boxing has rescued it for the future.
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