Boxing has taken another key step towards salvaging its place in the Olympic Games.
The executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended on Monday that boxing be included in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
The sport had been stripped away from the Olympic Games after being beset with a number of officiating scandals, corruption allegations and lack of financial transparency.
Boxing’s former governing body, the Russian-led IBA was expelled from the Olympic movement for its failures to reform. The IOC itself ran the boxing tournaments at the Tokyo and Paris Olympics but would not do so a third time.
That left boxing on course to crash out of the Olympics once and for all, until a new body, World Boxing, was formed that sought to replace IBA and gain Olympic recognition.
Boxing was on course to crash out of the Olympics, without a new governing body. (AP Photo/John Locher)
The IOC only granted World Boxing recognition as boxing’s new governing body last month and now the IOC Executive Board has decided to put the sport forward to the IOC Session for inclusion at the LA 2028 Olympic Games.
The IOC Session when it meets this week will need to vote to approve the Executive Board’s proposal, but as long as they do boxing will be restored to the competition programme for LA 2028.
More to follow…
