Daily Times

The International Olympic Committee executive board has recommended that boxing be included at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

The sport was not part of the initial programme when it was announced in 2022, but last month World Boxing was given provisional recognition as the sport’s international governing body.

The recommendation will still need to be approved by the IOC at this week’s session in Greece, but outgoing IOC president Thomas Bach expects it to be given the green light.

“After the provisional recognition of World Boxing in February we were in a position to take this decision,” Bach said on Monday.

“This recommendation has to go to the session, but I am very confident they will approve it so that all the boxers of the world then have certainty they can participate in the Olympic Games in LA.”

The creation of a new global body was the biggest hurdle to the sport’s inclusion in the next Games.

The IOC has run boxing at the past two Olympics after the International Boxing Association (IBA) was suspended as the sport’s world governing body in 2019 over governance, finance, refereeing and ethical issues.

The Russian-led IBA was then stripped of its status in June 2023 over a failure to implement reforms.

The IOC was at loggerheads with the IBA during last year’s Olympics in Paris over the participation of two boxers, Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting.

The IBA banned the fighters midway through the 2023 World Championships saying they had failed gender eligibility tests, but the IOC allowed them to compete and both won gold medals in their weight classes.

World Boxing was formed in April 2023 and now has 84 members across five continents, including Great Britain.

Last month the IOC said World Boxing met several key criteria for provisional recognition.

President of World Boxing, Boris van der Vorst, welcomed Monday’s announcement.

“This is a very significant and important decision for Olympic boxing and takes the sport one step closer to being restored to the Olympic programme,” he said.

“I have no doubt it will be very positively received by everyone connected with boxing, at every level throughout the world, who understands the critical importance to the future of the sport of boxing continuing to remain a part of the Olympic movement.

“On behalf of everyone at World Boxing I would like to thank the Executive Board of the IOC for the trust they have placed in our organisation and we hope for a positive outcome when the IOC Session meets this week.

“World Boxing understands that being part of the Olympic Games is a privilege and not a right and I assure the IOC that if boxing is restored to the programme for LA28, that World Boxing is completely committed to being a trustworthy and reliable partner that will adhere to and uphold the values of the Olympic Charter.”

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 dates for the qualifying period are yet to be confirmed.