Olympic boxing to split. The Washington Post reports that the U.S. Boxing Federation (USA Boxing) has taken the lead in a move to create an independent international body that would compete with the International Boxing Association (IBA). The new entity would be called World Boxing. It would include, in addition to the United States, several Western European countries, including Great Britain. Objective: to offer a credible alternative to the IBA for the IOC, and possibly allow the discipline to keep its place in the Olympic program after the Paris 2024 Games. The official creation of World Boxing could be announced as early as this Thursday, April 13, following an online meeting of the dissident national federations. The idea of leaving the IBA’s fold has been discussed since the IOC’s decision to take over the qualifications and the tournament for the Tokyo 2020 Games. Discussions were reportedly put on hold when IBA President Umar Kremlev of Russia announced a reform plan after his first election in 2020 and promised to fix the IBA’s problems. But the subject came up again in February, when several major boxing countries, including the United States, decided not to send any athletes to the 2023 Women’s World Championships in India. Since then, the opposition to Umar Kremlev has grown. It now seems ready to take action.
