LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The IOC finally ran out of patience with the International Boxing Association on Wednesday and set a date to terminate its Olympic status this month.
While boxing will still be on the program at the 2024 Paris Games, the International Olympic Committee said its executive board has asked the full membership to withdraw its recognition of the IBA at a special meeting on June 22.
The IOC had already suspended the IBA’s recognition in 2019 over long-standing financial, sports integrity and governance issues. The Olympic body oversaw the boxing competitions itself at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021 and will do so again for Paris.
An IOC statement said the boxing body “has failed to fulfil the conditions set by the IOC … for lifting the suspension of the IBA’s recognition.”
The IOC-IBA standoff has also put boxing’s place at the 2028 Los Angeles Games at risk, though that should now be resolved.
The IOC previously stressed it has no problem with the sport or its athletes – just the IBA and its current president Umar Kremlev, plus financial dependence on Russian energy firm Gazprom.
Olympic boxing’s reputation has been in question for decades. Tensions heightened after boxing officials worldwide ousted long-time IOC member C.K. Wu as their president in 2017.
National federations then defied IOC warnings in 2018 by electing as their president Gafur Rakhimov, a businessman from Uzbekistan with alleged ties to organized crime and heroin trafficking.
Kremlev’s election to replace Rakhimov in 2020 followed another round of IOC warnings that went unheeded.
Amid the IBA turmoil, a rival organization called World Boxing has attracted initial support from officials in the United States, Switzerland and Britain.
The IBA can still continue to organize its own events and held the men’s world championships last month in the Uzbek capital Tashkent.