‘Absolute disaster’: Gender furore a knockout blow for boxing’s Olympic future

Boxing’s Olympic future was already wobbly before it started copping haymaker after haymaker during a controversial fortnight in Paris.

The boxing competition at the Paris Olympics is over but the fight now starts for its inclusion at the 2028 LA Games after a damaging gender controversy placed the sport under renewed scrutiny.

Boxing is a staple of the modern Olympics, making its debut in 1904 and contested at every Games since, apart from in 1912.

Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Floyd Mayweather and Lennox Lewis, to name just a few, all started out at the Olympics.

Boxing at the Paris Games took place in mostly packed houses. And yet when the Los Angeles Olympics comes around four years from now, it is not certain that it will be on the program.

That was even before a gender eligibility row broke out in the French capital, overshadowing the action in the ring and only adding to the scrutiny of the sport and how it is run.

“It has hurt Olympic boxing at a crucial time where its future is still being discussed,” Steve Bunce, a veteran British boxing journalist, said on the BBC. “It’s an absolute disaster.”

Spencer Oliver, a British former boxer who was in the French capital as a radio pundit, agrees.

“It’s just a mess because boxing comes into the spotlight again,” Oliver told AFP. “But it’s for the wrong reason.”

Algeria's Imane Khelif (in red) punches Italy's Angela Carini. (Photo by MOHD RASFAN / AFP)

At the heart of boxing’s problems is a protracted and open dispute between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Russian-led International Boxing Association.

Boxing at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021 went ahead only after the IOC stepped in to run it and the IOC again organised the sport in Paris, having effectively frozen the IBA out of the Olympic movement.

IOC president Thomas Bach has warned that boxing’s national federations need to find a new and “reliable” international partner for the IOC to be sure the sport features on the program for 2028.

World Boxing, a separate federation established last year, has put its hand up to carry the sport forward. Bach said on Friday that the IOC would take the decision on the sport’s inclusion in the first half of 2025.

The clock is ticking.

The IBA’s main contribution in Paris was to stage a chaotic press conference that was intended to clarify why it disqualified Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting from its world championships last year.

Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting reacts after beating Poland's Julia Szeremeta (Blue) in the women's 57kg final. (Photo by MOHD RASFAN / AFP)

IBA president Umar Kremlev, a Kremlin-linked oligarch, claimed that the two fighters had “genetic testing that shows that these are men”.

The IOC cleared them to compete and expressed doubts about the IBA’s testing and motivations.

Khelif won gold on Friday and afterwards declared that “I am a woman like any other”.

“They hate me and I don’t know why,” she said of the IBA.

“I sent them a message with this medal.” Taiwanese sports officials have threatened legal action against the IBA. Lin also won gold in her weight category.

Those within the sport say that excluding boxing from the Olympics would have multiple repercussions.

Aussie history-maker Harry Garside, who suffered a surprise early exit in Paris, said it would be nothing short of a “crime against humanity”.

Garside captured hearts with his bronze medal run in Tokyo three years ago and has seen the sport’s popularity surge back home since then.

“Boxing is for everyone and it might not be at the next Olympics,” he said upon arriving in Paris.

“It’s one of the oldest sports in the Olympics, was in the ancient Olympics as well. For it to not be in the Olympics would be a crime against humanity.”

Harry Garside. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

Taking to social media, Garside, who ended Australia’s 33-year medal drought in the combat sport, declared: “It wouldn’t be the Olympics without boxing!!”

Australia boasted a record 12 boxers in Paris.

The team was a diverse tapestry, including the first Indigenous and Muslim woman to box for Australia at the Games, alongside athletes with Pacific Island, European, African, and South American heritage.

Caitlin Parker and Charlie Senior were the stars, both securing bronze medals.

“Politics is politics; there’s a lot more paperwork there but it’s about the athletes who have been dreaming of this,” Garside said.

“To take that away from them would be a crime, truly. It’s historically a poor man’s sport … I’ve seen boxing save many people’s lives. And we’re two Olympics away from Brisbane.”

Aussie team captain Parker, our first female boxing medallist, also defended the sport.

“I’ve always been so obsessed about it and it makes me so sad that some kids that have the same dream that it could be shattered for them,” she said.

“Especially women, who are just starting to create history in this sport. We’re seeing the growth in Australia, around the world. It would be an absolute crime.”

Ireland’s Kellie Harrington, who retained her title in Paris, fears that countries will pull funding for their boxing programs if there is no Olympics to aim for.

“So that would be a crying shame. I think everybody needs to do a little bit more to keep it there,” she told Britain’s Sun newspaper.

- with AFP