BOXING FACES THE reality of being wiped off the Olympic map after delegates at today’s extraordinary congress of the International Boxing Association (IBA) voted against re-running the organisation’s presidential election, effectively backing incumbent president Umar Kremlev.
This collective decision was in direct contravention to the wishes of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who suspended IBA in 2019 and has such doubts about the global boxing body’s governance that it has already excluded boxing from its list of sports for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
At today’s meeting in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, 106 national delegates voted against holding a new presidential election, with 36 voting for a re-run and four abstaining. The vote will likely be the death knell for boxing’s Olympic inclusion from LA 2028 onwards (as was the case with Tokyo, the IOC will organise a boxing tournament at the Paris Games in 2024).
A removal from future Olympics would have a devastating effect on boxing programs in countries like Ireland where state funding is largely predicated upon the sport’s Olympic status.
Russian-native Kremlev took a decidedly combative tone during a speech in which he called for amateur boxing to become less Olympic-focused, stressing: “We shouldn’t say ‘Olympic boxing’, we should say ‘IBA boxing.’”
Taking aim at the IOC, Kremlev told delegates: “I am working for you, not a side organisation. No one else should have influence on the organisation.”
The congress was held after pro-Olympic Dutchman Boris van der Vorst, who was deemed to have broken IBA campaign rules and was consequently forbidden from challenging Kremlev’s leadership in May, had his election ban overturned by the court of arbitration for sport (CAS).
However, the overwhelming vote against holding a re-election shows Kremlev has a strong mandate, particularly among smaller nations who don’t typically garner success at the Olympics in any case.
Kremlev was pictured with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, at the opening of a new international boxing centre in Moscow earlier this month. IBA, who were left in financial ruin by former president Wu Ching-kuo, are currently sponsored by Russian majority-state-owned energy company Gazprom to the tune of €29 million.
In a statement released following today’s IBA vote, the IOC said it was “extremely concerned” both by the outcome and by the decision taken to suspend the Boxing Federation of Ukraine prior to the vote citing government interference.
“Amongst other concerns, this includes the fact that there was no election, but only a vote not to hold an election, and the fact that the recognised Ukrainian national boxing federation was suspended shortly before the IBA Congress for disputed reasons, and additionally the chaotic circumstances of the voting procedure.
“Following these disturbing developments, the IOC EB will have to fully review the situation at its next meeting.
“This follows previous decisions of the IOC EB, amongst them the decision to disqualify IBA from running the boxing competitions at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 as well as the boxing qualifying events for Paris 2024, and that the federation remains suspended. Boxing has also not been included in the sports programme for the Olympic Games LA28.”
