Due to ongoing turbulence, the IOC has again withdrawn responsibility for qualification and Olympic competitions at the 2024 Summer Games from the International Boxing Association (IBA).
“Enough is enough,” said Kit McConnell, sports director of the International Olympic Committee, after a decision by the IOC leadership. Whether boxing will remain part of the Olympic program in Los Angeles 2028 beyond Paris 2024 should be decided at a later date. The IBA had already been excluded from organizing the boxing tournament at the Tokyo Games last year.
The decision was “in the interest of the athletes and the boxing community,” it said. How exactly the competitions for qualification and at the Paris Games themselves are organized is something the IOC wants to decide in consultation with the Olympic organizers.
The IOC had suspended the IBA 2019. The reasons were manipulation of combat verdicts, opaque financial management and shady leaders such as the Uzbek Gafur Rachimov, who was said to be involved in international drug trafficking. The new IBA boss Umar Kremlev is supported by the Russian energy giant Gazprom, on which the struggling IBA is heavily dependent financially.
In the recent election of Kremlin, disagreements arose again because several candidates had been excluded in advance. The International Court of Arbitration for Sports subsequently declared this to be illegal.