Boxing to be excluded from Olympics? What we know so far

Boxing has carved a special place for itself in the history of summer Olympics. However, a bureaucratic tussle has threatened the boxing's future in the quadrennial showpiece event. On Thursday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is likely to vote to withdraw its recognition of the International Boxing Association (IBA), according to reports.

Meanwhile, the International Boxing Association has failed to reverse the stripping of its recognition by the International Olympic Committee, with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Tuesday rejecting its urgent appeal.

The CAS decision comes after the IOC decided two weeks ago to strip the IBA of its recognition as the official international body for the sport over its failure to meet reform criteria. On Tuesday the IOC Executive Board also objected to comments made by the IBA leadership at a regional meeting in Brazil.


The IOC had 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.

On Tuesday, the Executive Board (EB) of the IOC condemned the violent and threatening language used by the President of the IBA, Umar Kremlev, against a number of individuals from the IOC.

The IBA said the decision to exclude it from the Olympic body was "truly abhorrent and purely political". It said its efforts on reforms had been largely ignored and not taken into consideration by the IOC, as per a Reuters report.

Will Boxing be Kept Out of Olympics?

Boxing, which has been a part of all Olympics editions since 1920, was not allowed to run by IBA at Tokyo Olympics in 2021. The qualification process and the main event at the Paris 2024 will also be controlled by IOC.

There are also doubts over boxing's inclusion in the Los Angeles Olympics 2028 as the temporary arrangements may not go beyond 2024. Boxing has been left out of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics' "preliminary schedule", according to reports. However, IOC is yet to make any final statement regarding the future of boxing at the Olympics.

FAQs

Q1. What is the full form of IOC?
A1. IOC stands for International Olympic Committee.

Q2. What is the full form of IBA?
A2. IBA denotes International Boxing Association.