German boxers will not start at the upcoming world championships. This was confirmed by sports director Michael Müller from the German Boxing Association of the “German Press Agency”.
However, the official reason is not a boycott, because Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to take part in the title fights organized by the controversial world association IBA under their national flag. A start was ruled out primarily for reasons of training methods, explained Müller.
The German boxing squad wants to concentrate completely on the European Olympic qualifying tournament in June in Kraków, Poland. The women’s World Championships in India in March and the men’s in Tashkent in May will not award points for Paris 2024 as the IBA has been suspended by the International Olympic Committee since 2019.
In addition to Germany, other nations such as the USA, Great Britain, Poland, Ireland and Canada will also be missing at least at the women’s IBA World Cup. The Ukraine also decided not to take part and clearly declared this decision as a boycott because of the starting permission for Russians and Belarusians.
The world association is led by the Russian Umar Kremlev. Among other things, the IOC complains about the management of the association, a lack of financial transparency and the dependence on the Russian company and IBA sponsor Gazprom, which is controlled by the Russian government around President Vladimir Putin.
Boxing is currently not included in the Olympic program for the Los Angeles 2028 games. Numerous national associations want to found a new world boxing association and thus secure the Olympic future of boxing.