How the farcical IBA may have doomed boxing at the Olympics for good
Since it was kicked out of the Olympics, the IBA has set about to undermine the Paris 2024 boxing tournament. This week it succeeded.
Boxing/MMA
Don't miss out on the headlines from Boxing/MMA. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The International Boxing Association (IBA) calling out the IOC for corruption would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious.
There have been long held concerns of blatant corruption, greed and mismanagement at the IBA that had boxing nearly booted from the Olympics in the first place.
And now the organisation is using two innocent young fighters – Imane Khelif and Lin Yu Ting – as pawns in a game of political point-scoring.
Make no mistake: IBA president Umar Kremlev couldn’t care less about the sanctity of women’s sports.
The IOC was left with little choice last year but to punt the IBA from having any involvement in the Paris Olympics due to concerns over governance and regulation.
In truth, that decision could have been made many years earlier.
Even in the eternally dodgy world of boxing, the IBA stood out to some as a concern.
Kremlev is a close ally of Putin and at one time the organisation was entirely funded by Russian state energy company Gazprom.
Now based in Russia, the IBA still refuses to answer questions about its funding, and won’t offer any transparency into how it is run.
The shambolic press conference the IBA staged this week was unhinged.
It was all noise, no knockout.
As usual, there wasn’t a single piece of evidence offered for any of the wild arguments and accusations Kremlev threw out.
To be sure, the IOC must shoulder much of the blame here too.
The organisation’s ineptitude and unwillingness to address what was obviously going to become an issue is hard to fathom.
It’s clear the IOC isn’t cut out to run boxing, and Thomas Bach knows he’ll need to find an organisation to run it.
Who exactly takes over is the 100 million dollar question.
What’s clear is that a decision needs to be made soon, and it must be the right one.
The wrong call could kill off boxing at the Olympics for good.
On the other hand, this might just be the low point the sport needs to force much-needed change.
Prior to this week, most of the issues plaguing amateur boxing were limited to a relatively small group of people directly impacted by it.
Now it’s the biggest story of the 2024 Olympics. The whole world knows.
What else is clear is that at the top level, despite what Kremlev drones on about, this whole sorry affair isn’t even about women’s sport or transgender equality – although those remain important issues to address.
The current circus is really about political point-scoring, showmanship, money, greed and power.
Having been expelled from the Olympics, the IBA has set out to make the Paris 2024 boxing tournament more farcical than any competition they’ve ever run.
That’s not an easy task given some of the shockers we’ve seen over the years, but this week they succeeded with a one-two knockout shot to the chin.
More Coverage
Originally published as How the farcical IBA may have doomed boxing at the Olympics for good
‘Just a d***head’: Trainer defends fiery press conference blow up
Andrei Mikhailovich’s trainer has defended his viral explosive blow up at Wednesday’s press conference, saying what Janibek Alimkhanuly’s team did ‘ruined our lives’ at today’s weigh ins.
Orphaned at 1, drug addict by 12: Tszyu ally’s stunning comeback tale
Russian Kiwi Andrei Mikhailovich could easily be dead – abandoned at 18 months old, and an addict barely a decade later. Instead, he has defied incredible odds to fight for a world title.