By Karolos Grohmann
PYLOS, Greece (Reuters) – Boxing was included on Thursday in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics programme after a unanimous vote from the International Olympic Committee, ending years of doubt over the sport’s Olympic future.
The IOC last month granted provisional recognition to World Boxing in a major step towards the sport’s inclusion in the LA Games and Thursday’s decision ensured the sport’s Olympic presence would continue.
“I thank you for the approval of having boxing back. We can look forward to a great boxing tournament,” IOC President Thomas Bach said.
The boxing competition at the Paris 2024 Games was run by the IOC after it stripped the International Boxing Association of recognition in 2023 over its failure to implement reforms on governance and finance.
The IOC had not included the sport on the initial LA 2028 programme, having urged national boxing federations to create a new global boxing body to replace the IBA.
World Boxing, currently with more than 80 national federations as members, was launched in 2023.
“This is a great day for boxers, boxing and everyone connected with our sport at every level across the world,” said World Boxing President Boris van der Vorst.
“This outcome has been achieved by a massive team effort… and would not have been possible without the hard work and commitment of all of the national federations, boxers, coaches, officials and boxing leaders that have worked together to enable this to happen.
“World Boxing understands that being part of the Olympic Games is a privilege and not a right and we are determined to be a trustworthy and reliable partner that will adhere to and uphold the values of the Olympic Movement,” he said.
The IOC has said only athletes whose national federations were members of World Boxing by the time of the start of the qualification events for the 2028 Olympics could take part in Los Angeles.
The IOC suspended the IBA, run by Russian businessman Umar Kremlev with close links to the Kremlin, in 2019 over governance, finance, refereeing and ethical issues.
It did not involve the IBA in running the boxing events at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and in a rare move two years later stripped it of recognition.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Kate Mayberry and Ken Ferris)
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