IOC to discuss the state of Boxing

Olympic Boxing
Photo: JB Autissier/Panoramic

The International Olympic Committee will hold a one-day executive board meeting this week to discuss the state of boxing.

The IOC has a planned executive board meeting set for June 20-22 but has now scheduled tonight’s event following an International Boxing Association report on the state of required reforms sent to the Olympic body.

Two sources with knowledge of proceedings confirmed to Reuters the meeting, with boxing in the spotlight.

The IOC suspended the IBA in 2019 over governance, finance, refereeing and ethical issues and did not involve it in running the boxing events at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

It has already provisionally excluded the sport from the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics with a final decision expected at its session in India in October.

The IOC, which is also in charge of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games qualifiers without IBA involvement, has demanded immediate reforms before a decision on the sport’s inclusion is taken but has warned repeatedly the IBA was not doing enough.

The IBA report sent to the IOC recently blamed the Olympic body for intransigence and false statements while claiming the IBA had done enough to meet reform criteria.

The IBA has been run since 2020 by Russian businessman Umar Kremlev, whose actions in the past years have led to the creation of a breakaway group called World Boxing with several countries having left the IBA to join the new organisation.

New Zealand has long questioned the IBA, believing the organisation was damaging the chances of the sport remaining in the Olympics.

An individual from Boxing New Zealand is a member of World Boxing that also includes the USA, Germany, Great Britain among its ranks.

-Reuters