Boxing remains on Olympics outer ahead of Los Angeles

The International Olympic Committee would love to have boxing at the Los Angeles 2028 Games but first needs to see the creation of a new global governing body for the sport.

The IOC stripped the International Boxing Association (IBA) of recognition last year over its failure to implement reforms on governance and finance, and the Olympic body has not included the sport on the LA 2028 program yet.

“We would love to see boxing, we want to see boxing on the program in LA. Now it is up to the boxing community to organize themselves for the sport and for the athletes,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams told a press conference.

A new organization called World Boxing was launched in 2023 and currently has 37 members, still far fewer than the IBA, but is not recognized by the IOC.

Adams was speaking a day after a shamolic IBA press conference in Paris where the organization’s President Umar Kremlev, a Russian, attacked the IOC in a long and rambling presentation.

Kremlev, addressing media online, meandered from personal attacks against IOC President Thomas Bach to railing against the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony and defending his own fight against corruption.

The IOC and IBA have been at loggerheads for days over the participation of two female boxers, Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting at the Games.

The IBA banned them midway through last year’s world championships following a chromosome test, citing gender ineligibility, but the IOC has allowed them both to compete, saying they are women.

The IBA press conference, which has triggered a protest by Taiwan’s sports administration, was initially organized to provide evidence of the tests conducted on the two boxers but instead caused more confusion.

“It clearly demonstrates that the sport of boxing needs a new federation to run boxing,” Adams said.

“The best recruiting sergeant for a new federation was that press conference yesterday.”

“It will give you an idea why we are in desperate need for a federation to take it forward.”

The IOC has run the boxing competitions without the IBA at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and in Paris but will not do so in Los Angeles.

“We are not a federation and we desperately need a federation to run boxing,” Adams said.