The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) warning that it could drop boxing from the 2024 Paris Olympics amid deepening dissatisfaction over steps taken by the International Boxing Association (IBA) to clean up the sport has left Indian boxers anxious.
Indian boxers won medals from three of the last four Olympics and are hopeful of finishing on the podium in the French capital. But the turmoil in world boxing over its status as an Olympic sport could dash their hopes.
IOC, having raised serious concerns over issues related to IBA’s governance, financial mismanagement, refereeing and judging has not been satisfied by the reforms initiated by the world boxing body under Russian president Umar Kremlev in the last two years.
IOC last year excluded boxing from the initial programme of the 2028 Los Angeles Games and also announced it was taking over qualification for Paris by placing the process under its Task Force as it did for the Tokyo Olympics.
“Boxers are naturally worried about the developments,” India’s national men’s coach Narender Rana said on Sunday. “We do try to assure them that the world body is doing everything possible, but it still leaves them anxious.”
As per the IOC programme, Asian Games—postponed by China to be held in September-October next year—will be a qualifier for Indian boxers besides two world qualification tournaments due to take place in 2024. The Hangzhou Asian Games was postponed last year due to Covid and is still uncertain. Nine Indian boxers had qualified for Tokyo with Lovlina Borgohain winning bronze.
The IBA-IOC clash doesn’t seem close to ending. At its Congress in Abu Dhabi this month, Kremlev said boxers would not compete in the Olympics without IBA’s presence. “I want to stress that not a single boxer, coach or national federation will be participating in the Olympics without IBA. This is a request from the boxers.”
A major sore point with IOC is IBA renewing a multimillion-dollar contract with Russia’s state energy giant Gazprom. Allowing boxers from Russia and ally Belarus to compete in IBA events under their flag despite IOC sanction due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is another.
“The recent IBA Congress has shown once more that IBA has no real interest in the sport of boxing and the boxers but is only interested in its own power. The decisions and discussions to keep boxers away from the Olympic qualifiers and the Olympic Games cannot be understood differently,” IOC said in a statement.
Referring to the sponsorship extension with Gazprom and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling not leading to a fresh presidential election, IOC said it “will have to take all this into consideration when it takes further decisions, which may –after these latest developments–have to include the cancellation of boxing for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.”
IBA in a statement on Saturday said the threat to remove boxing from Paris was the latest attack on boxers by IOC. “The Olympics are a global sporting asset that belongs to the athletes of all sports and cannot be a tool of extortion of the International Sports Federations for purely political reasons, as is unacceptably happening now.
“IBA will continue to fight for its athletes to make sure you have every opportunity and equal right to participate in the Olympic Games.”