By Joiner Martínez
05 Apr 2024, 20:34 PM EDT
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) set a deadline for boxing to remain on the Olympic program in Los Angeles 2028 and reiterated that it will not organize qualifying competitions, as happened for Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
The IOC established “early 2025” as the deadline for a new Federation to take over after the International Boxing Association (IBA) withdrew its recognition, a decision ratified last Tuesday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). ).
“At the moment, boxing is not included in the sports program of the LA28 Olympic Games. To remedy this, the IOC needs to have an associated International Boxing Federation by early 2025,” reported the body chaired by Thomas Bach.
“For governance reasons, the IOC is not in a position to organize another Olympic boxing tournament. To keep boxing on the Olympic programme, the IOC needs a recognized and reliable International Federation as a partner, as with all other Olympic sports,” he added.
If boxing will be in Los Angeles it will be without the IBA, which was against the CAS ruling and regretted “that its initiatives have been ignored.” Furthermore, he pointed out: “The IOC never provided the IBA with a coherent roadmap or established a direct channel of communication, even after the IBA proposed a 24/7 liaison person for these related matters. ”.
The IBA explained that in seeking to lift the suspension, which the IOC imposed on it in 2019, “it elected a new Board of Directors through a rigorous selection process, which reflects the majority of the recommendations of the Ulrich Governance Reform Group Haas, and established the Boxing Independent Integrity Unit (BIIU)”; At the same time, he noted that he had carried out “a cleaning of the competition officials and processes have been implemented for the evaluation of all personnel on the field, including international technical officials, referees and judges.”
Regarding its financial situation, another of the points that the IOC marked for the suspension, the International Association stated that “it has paid millions of dollars of debt. It has become financially sustainable and completely independent of Olympic revenue with its income from events and sponsorships. “It has been reorganized from top to bottom and throughout the organization.”
Boxing will not be in Los Angeles with the IBA and the big question is who it will be with. In the midst of the conflict between the IOC and the International Association, World Boxing emerged, which celebrated the CAS ruling and will seek to position itself as the Federation that will keep the sport in the Olympic program.
“The CAS decision and the IOC’s comments send a clear and unequivocal message to all National Federations that if they want their boxers to have the opportunity to change their lives by continuing to compete in future Olympic Games, they must do so. We must support and seek to join World Boxing,” commented the new Federation, which has the United States and Great Britain among its members.
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