IOC grants provisional recognition to global body World Boxing | Sport-others News

In a major boost for boxing, the International Olympic Committee granted provisional recognition to World Boxing on Wednesday. It is a major step towards the sport’s inclusion in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
The IOC conducted the boxing competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics after it de-recognized the International Boxing Association (IBA) in 2023 due to problems in governance and finance. IOC banned IBA, run Russian businessman Umar Kremlev, in 2019 over governance, finance, refereeing and ethical issues and did not involve it in running the boxing events at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, before stripping it of recognition in 2023, an extremely rare move the IOC.
The IOC has not included the sport in the LA 2028 programme yet, having urged national boxing federations to create a new global boxing body or risk missing out on the Olympics in three years.
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World Boxing was launched in 2023 and has now 78 members across five continents.
“The (IOC) assessment concluded that World Boxing has continued to make progress regarding the identified areas of consideration to be recommended for IOC Provisional Recognition as the IF within the Olympic Movement governing the sport of boxing at the world level,” the IOC said in a statement.
The Olympic body said World Boxing had met several key criteria to merit provisional recognition.
World Boxing has welcomed the move with current President Boris van der Vorst saying in a statement, “This is a very significant day for everyone connected with the sport of boxing in the Olympic Movement. Keeping its place at the Olympic Games is critical to the future of our sport at every level, from the grassroots to the highest echelons of professional boxing, and this decision the IOC takes us one step closer to our objective of seeing boxing restored to the Olympic programme. It has taken a huge team effort from a large number of people across the globe to get to this point and none of it would have been possible without the hard work and commitment of all of the National Federations, boxers, coaches, officials and boxing leaders that have worked together to make this possible.”Story continues below this ad
World Boxing fills all criteria
The Olympic body said World Boxing had met several key criteria to merit provisional recognition including sufficient members across five continents, application of the sports integrity process implemented during the Paris Games, including independent oversight and good governance structures, as well as assurances on revenues and signing up to the World Anti-Doping Code.
The recognition, even though it is still provisional, means the sport can now push towards its Olympic inclusion in 2028, having overcome the biggest hurdle about the Olympics, which was the creation of a new global body for the sport.
Indian Boxing needs to sort out the mess
With World Boxing gaining provisional recognition, the sport of Boxing has received an impetus but Indian boxing will need to sort out its adminrative mess.
Earlier this week on Monday, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) appointed an ad-hoc committee to conduct elections for the Boxing Federation of India (BFI). However, BFI retaliated calling the move ‘illegal’ and questioning the motive behind the decision of IOA President PT Usha.