MOSCOW, May 29. /TASS/. Boxers from national federations that are members of the International Boxing Association (IBA) will be banned from the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in the United States, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) press office announced in a statement on Wednesday.
"Boxing is currently not on the sports program of the Olympic Games LA28," the statement reads. "The IOC has made it very clear that it cannot again organize such Olympic boxing competitions."
"In order to remedy this, Olympic boxing needs to be organized by a credible, well-governed International Federation," the statement continued. "It is therefore already clear that any boxer whose National Federation adheres to the IBA will not be able to participate in the Olympic Games LA28."
"The respective NOC will have to exclude such a National Boxing Federation from its membership," according to the IOC’s statement. "As always with the IBA, it is unclear where the money is coming from."
After Tokyo was home to the Olympic flame at the 2020 Summer Games, it was set to travel to Paris for the Summer Games in 2024, and then to Los Angeles in 2028. In 2021, at the 138th IOC (the International Olympic Committee) session in Tokyo, Australia’s Brisbane was selected to host the 2032 Summer Olympic Games.
The IOC also commented on the IBA’s previous decision to award prize money for participants in the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
"The IOC has taken a note of the decision by the International Boxing Association (IBA) with regard to prize money," the world’s governing Olympic body continued. "As always with the IBA, it is unclear where the money is coming from."
"This total lack of financial transparency was exactly one of the reasons why the IOC withdrew its recognition of the IBA," the IOC noted. "The IBA was not prepared to transparently explain the sources of its financing or to explain its full financial dependency."
IBA’s situation
In 2019, the IOC announced a decision to temporarily revoke the IBA's recognition status with the organization citing the financial and management crisis within the IBA as the reason. The IOC demanded the international boxing federation make reforms and suspended it from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
In June 2023, the IOC ruled at its session to strip the IBA of its Olympic membership stating that the boxing federation "failed to fulfil the conditions set by the IOC in its decision communicated to the IBA on 9 December 2021 - which was not challenged by the IBA - for lifting the suspension of the IBA’s recognition."
Russia’s Umar Kremlev took the reins of the IBA in late 2020 and the international boxing federation took a stance against the IOC's recommendations to strip athletes representing Russia and Belarus of their national identity. Boxers from both countries compete in IBA-sponsored events without any international restrictions.
The boxing federations of the United States, Great Britain, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and the Philippines canceled their membership in protest and formed a new international organization, World Boxing.
In mid-October 2023, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach has ruled out any chance of the International Boxing Association (IBA) being reinstated to the Olympic movement.
"With the IBA there’s no ongoing process, for us the case is closed… There will be no boxing with IBA in the Olympic program. It’s done. Full stop."
Commenting on the status of World Boxing, Bach said it still had some work to do if it wants to be recognized by the IOC.