IOC Expels International Boxing Association from Olympics

The lovers of boxing might not be able to watch their favourite sports at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games which will be going down later next year.

The International Olympic Committee ( IOC) took a unanimous decision to expel the International Boxing Association from its body during the Extraordinary IOC Session which was held on Thursday, June 22, 2023. This is the first time that a sports governing body is been expelled in the history of the Olympic Committee.

The boxing association was initially suspended in 2019 due to some financial and officiating irregularities in the body.

The IOC President, Thomas Bach explained the reason for the suspension during their online meeting.

"We do not have a problem with the sport of boxing. We do not have a problem with the boxers. We appreciate boxing as one of the most global sports. If we had a problem with boxers then there would not have been an Olympic competition in Tokyo, there would be no competition in Paris. Unfortunately, as you will have seen from the file, you can see we have an extremely serious problem with the IBA because of their governance. Because we value the sport of boxing so much, we believe the boxers fully deserve to be governed by an international federation with integrity and transparency".

This decision means that the IOC Task Force will administer the boxing tournament at the Paris 2024 Games, as it did for boxing at the last Olympics in Tokyo 2022.

Boxing has been left off the provisional programme of sports for the 2028 Olympic Games, which means it could lose its Olympic status once and for all.