Boycott World Championship – Kommersant Newspaper No. 28 (7473) of 02/15/2023

The International Boxing Association (IBA), the only major sports organization that lifted “isolation” sanctions against Russia last year, has faced a series of threats to boycott its main competitions if Russian and Belarusian fighters are admitted to them. The boxing federations of the USA, Ireland and the Czech Republic have already announced their refusal to participate in the men’s and women’s world championships, which will be held in the spring in Tashkent and New Delhi, while the British one is going to ignore at least the championship among women. We are talking about quite serious losses in terms of the level of competition.

On Tuesday, February 14, President of the Czech Boxing Association (CBA) Marek Simak informed Radiozurnal Sport that its structure intends to boycott both world championships, which will take place this spring. The women’s event will be held in New Delhi in March, the men’s event in Tashkent in May. Mr. Shimak, speaking about the reasons for this decision, called the President of the International Boxing Association Umar Kremlev a Russian, “close” to Vladimir Putin, and the IBA itself – an organization in which “everything is paid for by Gazprom” (he is its main sponsor). At the same time, the British Boxing Federation (GB Boxing) announced a boycott of the women’s championship. In her statement it is directly stated that it is caused by “anxiety about the future of boxing” associated with admission to international competitions under the auspices of the IBA of Russian and Belarusian boxers.

CBA and GB Boxing have followed the example of the other two national boxing federations, USA and Ireland. They had previously given notice that their boxers would not compete at the World Championships.

Last fall, the IBA became the first (and so far the only) major sports organization that radically changed its position on the isolation of Russian and Belarusian athletes, lifting all sanctions imposed on them after the start of the military operation in Ukraine based on the recommendations of the International Olympic Committee.

Representatives of the two states are allowed to perform in all its official competitions without any restrictions, that is, under their own flag and anthem. The move seems to have further complicated the federation’s already rocky relationship with the IOC.

The IBA has been in crisis for several years now. On his wave in 2019 IOC withdrew IBA recognition, removed her from the organization of the boxing tournament at the Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021. The federation experienced difficulties both with management and with finances. However, after the 2020 IBA headed Umar Kremlev, the situation began to improve. In particular, the debt issue was resolved, and a number of important reforms were initiated.

But relations between the IBA and the IOC have not improved, but rather escalated. In May 2022 Umar Kremlev was re-elected to the presidency, but the IOC actually refused to recognize the results of the elections in Istanbul, to which the Dutchman Boris van der First, who tried to compete with Mr. Kremlin, was not allowed. The latter appealed his suspension to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), achieved a positive decision for itself, but in the end, the IBA congress overwhelmingly voted against holding new elections, thus giving out a colossal credit of confidence to the Russian functionary. The IOC has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with the actions of the IBA, and also threatened with new sanctions – in relation to not the federation, but boxing as a whole. He is not included in the preliminary program of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and in December the main sports structure warned that it could exclude him from the program of even the next Olympics – Paris in 2024 – if the IBA continues to ignore its recommendations.

Thus, the World Championships may remain for a long time the main tournaments for the IBA. And the decisions to boycott this year’s championships cause them quite serious damage in terms of the level of competition.

Of the four countries that have already accepted them, only the Czech Republic is on the sidelines in boxing. The role of the USA, Great Britain and Ireland is well told by the performance of their boxers in the latest top competitions.

At the Tokyo Olympics, the British boxing team won a total of six medals (two of each value), sharing the first place with the Cubans in their total number. The group of leaders included the Irish (gold plus bronze) with the Americans (three silvers and a bronze). At the 2021 Belgrade Men’s World Championships, the U.S. team finished third in the medal count with two golds and two silvers, and last year at the Istanbul Women’s Championships, the Irish team came in second with two wins.

However, the IBA still expects that the position of the national federations will not become an obstacle for their boxers to come to the tournaments. Umar Kremlev has already stated that his organization “will do everything possible to help athletes from the United States come and take part in the World Boxing Championship and will provide them with assistance, including financial assistance.” Mr. Kremlev promised to “fight for every athlete to give them the opportunity to represent their country and their people under the flag and anthem,” pointing out that “those administrators and politicians who deprive athletes of this have no place in sports.”

Alexey Dospekhov