International Boxing Association expelled by IOC

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Published at :June 23, 2023 at 3:03 AM

Modified at :July 2, 2023 at 5:07 AM

Boxing will be part of the Paris Olympics 2024.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has stripped off International Boxing Association's (IBA) recognition from the Olympic family on Thursday at the IOC’s extraordinary session. A special meeting was arranged by the IOC to de-recognize IBA after being recommended two weeks ago by the executive board, a body chaired by president (of IOC) Thomas Bach.

However boxing will remain an Olympic sport at the Paris Olympic Games 2024. It is also reported that boxing was never really in danger of being kicked out of the Olympics over the four years since the IOC suspended the sport’s governing body in an effort to force changes. IOC president Bach iterated, "We highly value the sport of boxing. We have an extremely serious problem with IBA because of their governance.”

"We do not have a problem with the boxers. We appreciate boxing as one of the most global sports. If we had a problem with boxers then there would not have been an Olympic competition in Tokyo, there would be no competition in Paris. Unfortunately, as you will have seen from the file, you can see we have an extremely serious problem with the IBA because of their governance," the president said to insidethegames.

Also, the sport will be under the supervision of IOC (qualifying tournaments for Paris Olympics) who will continue to look after the sport as they did at the Tokyo Olympics 2022. Further, boxing is guaranteed to be in Los Angeles, members were told Thursday.

The fued between IOC and IBA started a long back. The matter intensified when Gafur Rakhimov from Uzbekistan was appointed as the president of the latter. He is said to have had ties with organized crime and heroin trafficking. Further, Umar Kremlev’s candidature to replace Rakhimov wasnt taken well by IOC who once again warned the sporting body.

IOC will now look to work upon a new body (a rival faction to IBA) World Boxing. Many countries including the USA, Great Britain have lend their support for the creation of new body.

M Sudharshan

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