Geneva. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Thursday ousted the International Boxing Association (IBA) from the Olympic family after years of controversy for ignoring advice and guidelines. Boxing will however retain its status as an Olympic sport at the 2024 Paris Games. The IOC voted to derecognise the IBA at a specially convened meeting. The result was certain because it had been recommended by the Executive Board, chaired by IOC President Thomas Bach, two weeks earlier. In the voting, 69 votes were cast in favor of the proposal while one vote was cast against it.
10 members abstained from voting. Boxing was never in danger of being left out of the Olympics, despite the IOC suspending the IBA four years earlier in an attempt to force change. Bach told IOC members during the online meeting, “We attach great importance to the sport of boxing. We have a very serious problem with them because of the way the IBA operates.”
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In addition, the federation’s finances were supported by Russia’s state energy company Gazprom, as well as the integrity of the bouts and judges were a source of controversy. “Boxers deserve to play under an international federation of complete integrity and transparency,” Bach said. The IOC is already overseeing boxing events for the Paris Olympics without the involvement of the IBA as it did in 2021. Did it for the Tokyo Games.
