Qualification dispute – Newspaper Kommersant No. 33 (7478) dated 22.02.2023

The long-standing conflict between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Boxing Association (IBA) has developed in a very interesting way. Deprived of recognition back in 2019 and suspended from holding Olympic boxing tournaments, the IBA, which, unlike the vast majority of federations, allowed Russian athletes to participate in top competitions, published its own selection rules for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. The central place in it is occupied by the men’s and women’s world championships, despite the fact that several countries have already decided to boycott them. The IOC responded by saying that its qualification system, which has no place for competitions under the auspices of the IBA, remains in force.

One of the main events of this week in the boxing community was the announcement of the selection rules for the Paris 2024 Olympics by the International Boxing Association. What makes the news interesting is the fact that from the point of view of the International Olympic Committee, the federation has nothing to do with the Olympic Games.

The two organizations have long been in a state of acute conflict. Back in 2019, the IOC withdrew recognition from the IBA, which was undergoing a deep administrative and financial crisis, and suspended it from organizing a boxing tournament at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021, later extending the suspension for the next Olympic cycle. Shortly thereafter, the federation was headed by the Russian Umar Kremlev, and the situation in it began to improve. In particular, the debt issue was resolved, and a number of important reforms were initiated.

However, 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 dismissal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), achieved a positive decision for himself, but in the end, the IBA congress overwhelmingly voted against holding new elections, thus giving the Russian functionary a colossal credit of confidence. The IOC has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with the actions of the federation, and also threatened with new sanctions – not against it, but about 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 body warned that it could exclude him from the program even for the next Olympics if the IBA continues to ignore its recommendations.

Meanwhile, the federation continued to pursue its own policy. 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 a special military operation in Ukraine based on the recommendations of the IOC. 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. Such a step further complicated the already difficult relationship between the IOC and the IBA, which, having published its Olympic qualification system, actually made another demarche.

This system includes a number of international competitions of different status, but the key role in it is given to two world championships, which will be held this spring. The women’s event will be held in New Delhi in March, the men’s event in Tashkent in May. The IBA explained the emergence of the regulation by the “need to protect athletes”, who will face “injustice” if the system proposed by the IOC is used. It focuses on regional multisport tournaments. According to the IBA, the exclusion from the world championship scheme “contradicts the principles of boxing” and is “unacceptable.” At the same time, the federation insists that “no other qualifying process”, apart from its own, “can not be approved”.

The IOC, in response to a request from Insidethegames for comment, recalled that the IBA is still denied recognition, and also emphasized that the “only legitimate” selection system for the Paris Olympics is the one that it adopted in September 2022.

The intrigue of the situation is added by the fact that the decision to boycott the world championships in New Delhi and Tashkent in connection with the admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes to them has already been made by the national boxing federations of a number of countries, including quite noticeable ones. The list includes the USA, Great Britain, Poland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Canada. True, the IBA announced that it would provide any assistance, including financial assistance, to all boxers from these countries who want to take part in the championship, ignoring the position of their federation.

Alexey Dospekhov