By Rory Carroll
PARIS (Reuters) – Boxing still has the chance of a spot in the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 but will need to resolve a bitter conflict over its governance first, LA28 CEO Casey Wasserman told Reuters on Sunday.
The ‘sweet science’ has been an almost ever-present fixture at the Olympics but is not on the programme for Los Angeles after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped the International Boxing Association (IBA) of recognition last June.
“The history of boxing in America and the Olympics is really powerful and important,” Wasserman said in Paris.
“The popularity of boxing in America is important and its ability to have kids from all socioeconomic walks of life be able to participate in it is powerful and important.
“We’ve always said that we’ve got to figure out a way to get boxing in the Games in 2028 but as we sit here today… it is not on our schedule and we don’t have a venue for it.”
The IOC stopped the IBA from running the boxing tournaments at the Tokyo and Paris Games amid transparency concerns, leading to a war of words between the bodies.
The IOC has told federations to work together to appoint a credible international federation, with World Boxing currently looking best poised to fill that role.
“The IOC want to make sure that boxing finds its way to stability as a federation so it can have a permanent place on the Games without all this back and forth,” Wasserman said.
The IBA’s decision to award prize money to boxers at the Paris Games has driven another wedge into relations between the bodies.
In another disagreement between the two, gender tests conducted by the IBA on two female boxers during last year’s world championships, which had repercussions in Paris when a social media storm exploded around the pair, were condemned by the IOC on Sunday as illegitimate and lacking credibility.
While the sport was up against the ropes, it was not down for the count, Wasserman said.
“The agreement we have with boxing is that if they create a situation where they have solved the federation issues, then they will come to our programme,” he said.
“It’s the only sport that has unique treatment because of the unique circumstances.
“Our 36 sports are locked. If boxing is involved, it will be 37. If not, it will be 36.”
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Paris, Additional reporting by Aadi Nair; editing by Clare Fallon)
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