LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Kashmir English): Boxing has been included in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics programme after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) unanimously voted in this regard few days back, ending years of doubt over the sport’s Olympic future.
In February, the Committee granted provisional recognition to ‘World Boxing’ in a major step towards the sport’s inclusion in the Los Angles Games and the Thursday’s IOC decision ensured the sport’s Olympic presence would continue.
“I thank you for the approval of having boxing back. We can look forward to a great boxing tournament,” IOC President Thomas Bach said.
The inclusion of the sport on the sports programme of the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 (LA28) was proposed by the IOC Executive Board to the 144th IOC Session, which met in Costa Navarino, Greece.
Boxing competition at Paris Olympics
The boxing competition at the Paris 2024 Olympics Games was run by the IOC itself after it stripped the International Boxing Association of recognition in 2023 over its ‘failure to implement reforms on finance and governance’.
The Olympic Committee had not included the sport in the initial 2028 programme, having urged national boxing federations to create a new global boxing body to replace the International Boxing Association.
World Boxing, launched in 2023, currently has more than 80 national federations as members.
“This is a great day for boxers, boxing and everyone connected with our sport at every level across the world,” said World Boxing President Boris van der Vorst.
“This outcome has been achieved by a massive team effort … and would not have been possible without the hard work and commitment of all of the national federations, boxers, coaches, officials and boxing leaders that have worked together to enable this to happen.
“World Boxing understands that being part of the Olympic Games is a privilege and not a right and we are determined to be a trustworthy and reliable partner that will adhere to and uphold the values of the Olympic Movement,” he said.
The IOC has restricted the participation in the 2028 Games for only those athletes whose national federations were members of World Boxing by the time of the start of the qualification events for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The IBA was suspended by the IOC in 2019 over finance, governance, refereeing and ethical issues.
The Association was run by Russian businessman Umar Kremlev who had close links to the Kremlin.
The IOC did not involve the IBA in running the boxing events at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and in a rare move two years later stripped it of recognition.
