International Olympic Committee threatens to cancel boxing at 2024 Paris Olympics over feud with IBA
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued a statement addressing the governance of the International Boxing Association (IBA) and why the sport might not be included in the coming Olympics events.
The IOC have now threatened to cancel boxing at the Paris 2024 Olympics amid their ongoing feud with the IBA (the sport's sanctioning body) and its Russian president Umar Kremlev. IOC already not including boxing in sports for LA 2028 and are demanding major reforms from IBA.
The statement read:
It has also become clear again, that IBA wants to distract from its own grave governance issues by pointing to the past, which has been addressed by the IOC already in 2019 … The IOC will have to take all this into consideration when it takes further decisions, which may — after these latest developments — have to include the cancellation of boxing for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.”
The IOC’s problem with the IBA stems from their discontent with the organization's president, Umar Kremlev. The Russian has been accused of depending too heavily on Russian energy company Gazprom as a sponsor for the boxing organization alongside a match-fixing scandal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games.
IBA vs. Olympics
Kremlev offered a rebuttal to the sport being dropped from the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics while speaking at the organization's Global Boxing Forum in Abu Dhabi. He said via InsideTheGames:
“No other organisation should interfere or meddle in the business of our association.The International Boxing Association, we are independent”.
The statement from the IOC comes right after Kremlev’s comments, signifying a fallout between the committee and one of boxing’s main sanctioning authorities.
Earlier on in 2022, the IOC stated that boxing would be part of the proceedings for the Paris games and even created a schedule of boxing qualifying events. The statement on Thursday is the first time the suggestion of the sport being excluded from the Paris Olympics 2024 has been made.
Roy Jones Jr. and a group of protestors revolted against the decision of the sport not being part of the Los Angeles 2028 games just days prior, standing with the IBA. After that, the Russian president spoke about moving away from the games, just weeks after, in Abu Dhabi.
The news of the re-election of Kremlev, where the IBA voted for him to retain his presidency with a 106-36 tally, could prove problematic for ties between the IBA and the IOC. The IOC has stated if reforms are not made in the organization, it could put the sport's future in jeopardy at the Olympics.