The boxing tournament at the Tokyo Olympics, August 3, 2021. UESLEI MARCELINO / REUTERS
On the ropes for four years, Olympic boxing risks the K.-O. After four years of conflict, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) excluded, on Thursday June 22, the International Boxing Federation (IBA) from the Olympic world, but maintains the “noble art” on the menu of the 2024 Olympic Games (Paris) and 2028 (Los Angeles).
The Olympic body has no “no problem with boxing or with boxers”, said IOC President Thomas Bach on the occasion of the 140th IOC Session. On the other hand, the body based in Lausanne (Switzerland) had the IBA in its sights for a long time.
Discredited by repeated arbitration scandals, an abysmal debt and a former leader considered by the United States as “one of the leaders of organized crime” Uzbek, the body governing international boxing was convened at the beginning of June, and saw the IOC Executive Board ” to withdraw [sa] reconnaissance » – following a vote (69 votes for, one against and ten abstentions). Already “suspended” since June 2019, the IBA has definitively lost the organization of the Olympic boxing tournaments, as well as the resources allocated by the IOC for this occasion, and will now have to live on its own funds.
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As the threat of the exclusion of the noble art from Olympic competitions became serious, the IBA had proclaimed its desire for reform, notably electing in December 2020 a new president, the Russian Umar Kremlev. But in a report published at the beginning of June, the IOC considered, without taking gloves, that not only the IBA had “failed to meet the conditions” set for her reinstatement, but that she had gone as far as « l’intimidation » ; in particular when the IOC took away the organization of the Paris 2024 Olympic tournament after having done the same for Tokyo 2021.
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“The IOC has consistently and patiently tried to help with issues of concern”more l’IBA “was not able to provide the elements allowing the lifting of his suspension”justified Christophe De Kepper, the director general of the IOC, on Thursday.
The Olympic body also deplores the IBA’s persistent financial dependence on the Russian giant Gazprom, its main sponsor brought in by Kremlev. This follower of Vladimir Putin with a sulphurous reputation and colossal financial means was not afraid to challenge the IOC, by authorizing Russian and Belarusian boxers to fight under their own colors during the Women’s Worlds in March in India.
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The fall of the IBA coincides with the emergence of a new actor, the international federation World Boxing, founded by several Western federations and already rallied by those of the United States and Switzerland. Great Britain, the Netherlands and New Zealand have announced that they want to follow suit. “Boxers fully deserve to be led by an international federation governed by integrity and transparency”insisted Thomas Bach, Thursday.
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However, boxing, a historic Olympic sport, is not banned from the Olympics. “The sport of boxing is very important to ussaid Thomas Bach. We have an extremely serious problem with the IBA, because of its governance. » The presence of the discipline at the Paris Games has been confirmed, as at those of Los Angeles (United States), in 2028, whose final sports program will not be adopted until the fall.