Through the near fortnight of boxing action at Paris 2024, there have been as many verbal assaults exchanged between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Boxing Association (IBA) as punches landed between the competitors.
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The vitriol between the two entities was expected before the tournament began. In June 2023, the IOC voted unanimously (69-1 with ten members abstaining) to remove the IBA as the governing body for Olympic boxing, a decision which was later upheld in court.
“We highly value the sport of boxing. We have an extremely serious problem with IBA because of their governance," IOC President Thomas Bach told members during an online meeting via the Associated Press.
“The boxers fully deserve to be governed by an international federation with integrity and transparency.”
What caused this relationship to break down? Why is the IOC questioning the “integrity and transparency” of an organization that governed Olympic boxing for years? And what is the IBA’s current role in amateur boxing?
The Sporting News takes a deep dive into the origins of the IBA and its current standing in the sport.
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What is the International Boxing Association (IBA)?
The roots of the IBA can be traced back to 1946 when the Fédération Internationale de Boxe Amateur (FIBA) was dissolved in favor of fledgling competitor AIBA (Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur (AIBA).
For over six decades, the AIBA has controlled Olympic boxing competitions. In 2007, as part of a reform, the name of the company was changed to the International Boxing Association.
The IBA currently governs the IBA World Boxing Championships and the Youth and Junior World Boxing Championships. They no longer govern boxing at the Olympic Games.
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What controversy and scandal caused the IBA and the IOC to part ways?
In 2020, Russian sports magnet Umar Kremlev was elected President of the IBA. Operations were moved from Switzerland to Russia, with the latter country’s energy giant Gazprom becoming the sole sponsor of the organization.
When it emerged that IBA debts of over $20 million were suddenly cleared, the IOC strongly opposed Gazprom’s association. It was also widely reported that Kremlev has connections to Vladimir Putin, supported by the fact that Ukraine was suspended by the IBA following the Russian invasion in 2022.
These publicized events led to the complete breakdown of the relationship between the IBA and the IOC. The latter has already taken control of the boxing competition at Tokyo 2020 and officially removed the IBA from governance in the summer of 2023.
The IOC has also governed boxing at Paris 2024 but would like a new independent organisation to step in for Los Angeles 2028.
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What are the IBA’s views on Imane Khelif and Lin Wu-Ting?
Despite reaching the finals of the IBA-governed World Championships in March 2023, Khelif and Lin were disqualified before their respective bouts for “medical reasons.”
In the weeks that followed, it emerged that Algeria’s Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin were removed from the competition due to failed gender identity tests.
Kremlev would state that these results proved that Khelif and Lin carried male chromosomes, which gave the athletes an unfair advantage in female competition.
However, details of the testing procedures and specifics on the results have never been released, with the IBA stating that the findings are confidential.
The IOC does not recognize independent drug testing. Instead, they accept gender identity details from the corresponding National Olympic Committees and gender information provided on passports.
It has been widely reported that Khelif and Lin were both born females. It has also been speculated that these women have a condition known as DSD (Differences in Sexual Development).
On Monday, the IBA held a press conference in Paris to explain their position, only to use the time they had as an opportunity to besmirch the IOC. The event turned into a farce.