IBA Fights for Future of Olympic Boxing
by Brian Pinelli
The future of boxing at the Olympics appears on the ropes and despite the sport’s leaders facing challenges, optimism remains high at the IBA Men’s World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Bouts have been underway this week, medal rounds are May 14.
Gold medals and $200,000 USD will be awarded to champions across 13 weight divisions with a total prize purse of $5.2 million. More than 530 boxers representing 107 countries have stepped into the ring at the Humo Arena in the Uzbek capital. Seven defending world champions are in the 2023 world championship field.
Leaders of the International Boxing Association say the large turnout of boxers in Tashkent for the tournament shows the strength of the federation, despite its suspension by the IOC as the IF representing boxing at the Olympics.
The IBA was suspended in 2019 over finance, governance and refereeing/judging issues. Since then IBA has adopted governance reforms, engaging Canadian sports ethics consultant Richard McLaren to make recommendations to move forward.
An IOC boxing task force is overseeing the Paris 2024 tournament, as was also the case for Tokyo 2020. The sport – which has been contested at the Olympic Games since 1904 – has provisionally been left off the sport program for Los Angeles 2028.
IBA president Umar Kremlev is adamant that the governing body has fulfilled IOC-requested reform criteria. He says IBA deserves to be reinstated.
“We will definitely try to get into the Olympics – I hope that we will reach our goal,” Kremlev said at a news conference in Tashkent at the open of the championships.
“The IBA is open and transparent – we will we fight for boxing to be present at all multi-sports events, including the Olympics. We will not let them exclude boxing from the Games. I don’t see any issues to start the cooperation with the IOC, we just have to start.”
IBA secretary general George Yerolimpos noted that a comprehensive report was sent to the IOC proving all the requested governance reforms have been made. The 400-page comprehensive report was delivered, addressing all areas of concern, according to the IBA, on Friday, May 5th.
‘The IBA has sent all the requested responses and documents to the IOC totalling over 400 pages,’ IBA Secretary General and CEO George Yerolimpos said. “We are open to continued dialogue and cooperation for the sake of our core values and duty to protect our athletes, and the sport of boxing itself.
“We hope this helps to ensure a fair evaluation of the IBA and its progress done and will lead to a full reinstatement of the organization in the Olympic movement and production of the boxing events in the lead-up and during Paris 2024,” said the IBA leader.
“I’m sure that we have all conditions that the athletes require,” Kremlev said. “We are all here to serve our athletes and coaches, our National Federations. All parties need to acknowledge the mistakes of the past and never repeat them,” he said.
Kremlev laid blame for boxing’s woes on the failures of the federation’s former president, C.K.Wu, who served from 2006 to 2019.
Kremlev labled as a “rogue organization” the just-announced World Boxing federation which will seek to become the IF recognized by the IOC for boxing. Last month Olympic-level boxing leaders in the United States, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand the Philippines and Sweden said they would join forces for the new federation.
USA Boxing – representing the most successful country in the sport’s Olympic history –announced April 26 that it had left the IBA with immediate effect.
Kremlev said that the withdrawal from the IBA to the breakaway world body would hurt US athletes and deprive them of other opportunities.
Kremlev also revealed that he has received four requests from interested parties that would like to step in and represent U.S. boxers as part of the IBA.
The Russian sports leader says he would much prefer to find a way to overcome the conflict affecting Olympic boxing.
“We want to negotiate a resolution and live in peace,” he said.