New Delhi: The International Olympic Committee’s executive board has approved the inclusion of boxing for the Los Angeles Olympics 2028. The move comes ahead of the 144th session starting on Tuesday at Costa Navarino in Greece.
This development is crucial for all the aspiring boxers to continue their ambitions in the combat sport. It also ensues the provisional recognition to World Boxing on February 26 this year. This was long-awaiting alternative for a global administrative body for the sport after the IOC suspended the International Boxing Association (IBA), which was the apex body of the sport, following multiple issues like poor governance, integrity of bouts, and financial irregularity.
IOC Executive Board Approves Boxing’s Return to the 2028 Olympics
A ratification for boxing’s inclusion in the Los Angeles Summer Games in 2028 is pending for the IOC session, scheduled between March 18 and 21, which will also decide the successor of current IOC president Thomas Bach.
“After the provisional recognition of world boxing in February, then we were in the position to take this decision so that … this recommendation of course has to go to the session,” Bach said after the executive board meeting, as quoted by news agency Associated Press.
“I am very confident that the session will approve it so that all the boxers of the world then have certainty that they can participate in the Olympic Games L.A. 2028 if their national federation is recognised by world boxing,” he added.
The World Boxing welcomed the decision and believed it to restore the sport’s pride in the Olympic Games after it was said to be on the jeopardy in what could have been a potential snub.
“This is a very significant and important decision for Olympic boxing and takes the sport one step closer to being restored to the Olympic programme,” said World Boxing president Boris van der Vost.
“I have no doubt it will be very positively received by everyone connected with boxing, at every level throughout the world, who understands the critical importance to the future of the sport of boxing continuing to remain a part of the Olympic Movement,” the Dutchman added.
Boxing wasn’t part of the initial sports programme approved in the IOC Session in February 2022 because of the concerns with the former international body (IBA). It was the IOC itself who organised the boxing events in the Tokyo and Paris Olympic events. The Paris 2024 boxing competition and its qualifying tournaments were organised under the authority of the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit, an ad hoc task force created by the IOC EB.
The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) executive board has approved boxing’s inclusion in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. This follows the February provisional recognition of World Boxing, replacing the suspended International Boxing Association (IBA) due to governance and integrity concerns. Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
