The Olympic Federation of Ireland today welcomed the recommendation of the IOC Executive Board for the IOC membership to withdraw its recognition of the International Boxing Association (IBA) at a specially convened remote IOC Session which will take place on 22 June.
The IBA has been suspended by the IOC since 2019 because of failures to adopt governance reforms. Consequently, boxing has not been included on the programme for the Olympic Games of Los Angeles 2028 and will be run by the IOC taskforce at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
From an Irish perspective boxing has produced over 50% of Ireland’s historical medals. Although many other sports are increasingly coming to the fore, boxing remains very important to Ireland’s medal hopes and plays a very important role in communities across the country.
This recommendation by the IOC Executive Board could ultimately safeguard the future for boxing as an Olympic sport if the recently launched alternative organisation, World Boxing, can gain the support of boxing federations across the world, which the Olympic Federation of Ireland hopes will be the case.