Boxing’s Olympic status is on the verge of being secured after years of uncertainty. On Monday the International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach said that his executive board had recommended that boxing should be included in the 2028 games to be held in Los Angeles. It appears to be a formality that the IOC membership will ratify the decision in the coming days as Bach and his colleagues confirmed last month that they now recognise World Boxing as the sport’s new international federation.
“After the provisional recognition of World Boxing in February we were in the position to take this decision,” Bach said at a press conference. “I’m very confident the [IOC] session will approve it, so that all boxers then have certainty that they can participate in the Olympic Games in LA2028 if their national federation is recognised by World Boxing.”
Boxing has featured in every summer Olympics since 1904, and great champions have emerged – from Cassius Clay (who became Muhammad Ali) and Sugar Ray Leonard to Katie Taylor and Oleksandr Usyk. Its permanent banishment from the Olympic movement would have had disastrous consequences for an already beleaguered sport.
In 2019 the IOC had suspended the former governing body, the infamous and Russian-dominated International Boxing Association, citing a lack of faith in its integrity after a series of controversies surrounding finance and the suspicious scoring of fights. After the IBA failed to meet any of the stipulations for change the IOC took the drastic step of removing boxing from the Olympic movement in 2023. It was made plain that unless a new regulatory body emerged boxing had no chance of appearing in any future Olympic Games.
The IOC had reluctantly run the boxing tournaments at the previous two Olympics, in Tokyo and amid controversy over gender eligibility tests in Paris, but they did not include the sport in the initial programme for Los Angeles. There were serious concerns that boxing would be marginalised permanently from Olympic competition but the emergence of World Boxing transformed the landscape.
Founded by Boris van der Vorst, the president of the Dutch boxing federation who began canvassing for support in 2022, World Boxing now has 84 member states with British and American administrators having also played key roles in setting up a credible alternative to the IBA.
Reacting to Bach’s announcement, Van der Vorst said: “This is a very significant and important decision, and takes the sport one step closer to being restored to the Olympic programme. I have no doubt it will be very positively received by everyone connected with boxing who understands the critical importance to the future of the sport of continuing to remain a part of the Olympic movement. We hope for a positive outcome when the IOC session meets this week.
“World Boxing understands that being part of the Olympic Games is a privilege and not a right. I assure the IOC that if boxing is restored to the programme for LA28, World Boxing is completely committed to being a trustworthy and reliable partner that will adhere to and uphold the values of the Olympic charter.” – Guardian
