IOC board puts boxing back on the Olympic program for LA in 2028

By Canadian Press on March 17, 2025.

COSTA NAVARINO, Greece (AP) — Boxing is set to be on the program for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles after years of disputes over how the sport is run.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said Monday that the IOC’s executive board approved including boxing on the 2028 program.

It still needs a full IOC session to sign off on the decision later this week, but that’s usually a formality.

The IOC organized the boxing tournaments at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the Paris Games last year after relations with the International Boxing Association broke down, but said it needed a new partner in time for 2028.

Last month, the IOC recognized a new governing body, World Boxing.

“I am very confident that the session will approve it so that all the boxers of the world then have certainty that they can participate in the Olympic Games L.A. 2028 if their national federation is recognised by World Boxing,” Bach said.

The IOC suspended the IBA in 2019 following long-running disputes over governance, its finances and the integrity of bouts and judging, and took the rare step of banishing it from the Olympic movement entirely in 2023, shortly after the World Boxing breakaway.

Since it was suspended, the IBA and its Russian president Umar Kremlev have continued to feud with the IOC, particularly over the rules on eligibility for women’s boxing at the Paris Olympics.

The IBA said last month it planned to file criminal complaints against the IOC in the United States, France and Switzerland.

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The Associated Press