Will boxing remain an Olympic sport? The question is not new. It will soon even be ancient history. But the latest statements from the IOC, Tuesday March 19, put it back in the news. While still making his response vague.
The clarification came from Kit McConnell, the IOC sports director, during the press conference which followed the first day of the executive board's meeting in Lausanne. After recalling that 188 athletes from 56 countries had already won their ticket for the boxing tournament of the Paris 2024 Games, he explained that the management by a group of the work of the IOC of the qualification process, then of the competition itself, could not continue forever. It will not go beyond Paris 2024.
The following ? “ The inclusion of boxing in the Olympic program for the Los Angeles 2028 Games is pending and not confirmed », added Kit McConnell. Before being more precise: “ If there is no boxing body with the support and leadership of national federations, we will not be able to include boxing in the Olympic programme. It is therefore up to the national federations to lead this change and work towards the creation of a body with which we can work in partnership, because we cannot move forward in the current situation. »
The message is clear. The IOC having definitively removed the IBA from its field of vision, the Olympic future of boxing can only be decided with another international body. But not just any organization: an organization with the support of the national federations, if not all, at least their majority.
This new instance exists. It is called World Boxing, will celebrate its first year of existence next month, organized its first elective congress last November and has a headquarters in Lausanne. So far, nothing is wrong, everything is in order. But, the problem is that its numbers are struggling to take off. To date, World Boxing has just around thirty member countries. Promising during the first months, its progress stalled. She even seems to have stopped.
Conversely, the IBA continues to move forward, despite losing recognition from the IOC last June. The body chaired by the Russian Umar Kremlev was much less affected than expected by the creation of World Boxing. Since last fall, it has even been working to encourage the creation of new federations in countries that have joined the ranks of World Boxing, then to open its doors wide to them.
For the IOC, the situation is not simple. The body no longer wants to discuss with the IBA, but without immediately entering into a dialogue with World Boxing, considered still too unrepresentative. Kit McConnell's message, Tuesday March 19 in Lausanne, has no other aim than to call on the national federations to line up behind the banner of World Boxing, or to create another international federation. Otherwise, boxing could say goodbye to the Olympic Games.
