Olympic Committee withdraws membership of International Boxing Association

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced this Thursday (22), during the entity’s general meeting, the disaffiliation of the International Boxing Association (IBA, acronym in English). It is the first time, in 129 years of existence, that the body decides to exclude a federation from the Olympic movement. The decision complies with the recommendation of the Executive Council of the IOC, on the 7th of June, on the grounds that the IBA had governance, arbitration and financial problems. Also at the assembly, the modality had an assured presence at the Olympics in Paris (France), next year, and Los Angeles (United States), in 2028, which was not yet part of the program. The IBA had been suspended by the IOC since 2019, when it was still known as Aiba (International Amateur Boxing Association), in the wake of accusations of corruption and match-fixing under the management of Taiwanese Wu Ching-Kuo, who chaired the organization between 2006 and 2017. Because of this, it was prevented from organizing the modality disputes at the Tokyo (Japan) Games, in 2021, and Paris. In a note, the IBA evaluated the decision as “catastrophic”. He also listed questions to the IOC president, Thomas Bach, such as the accountability of Ching-Kuo (who was a member of the Committee’s Executive Board), for past corruption cases; an alleged lack of communication between the entities and the relationship between politics and sport, driven by the recommendation that athletes from Russia and Belarus not participate in events, due to the involvement of the countries in the military invasion of Ukraine. In an interview with the program Stadium, on TV Brasil, during a visit to the training center of the Brazilian boxing team, in São Paulo, the president of the IBA, Umar Kremlev, had already considered the Executive Council’s recommendation on disaffiliation to be a “joke”. The leader, who is Russian, still defended the work done in the association, which he has chaired precisely since 2019. [COI] lose [com a desfiliação], not us. We’re not the ones breaking the rules. it wasn’t us [atual diretoria] that we promote this situation linked to corruption. We are solving these problems. Our association is, today, one of the best in the world for sports”, said Kremlev, who communicated with the help of a translator. twitter.com/6mDrcgVLqp — Conf. Bras. de Boxe (@cbboxe) June 22, 2023 Also at the Stadium, the president of the Brazilian Boxing Confederation (CBBoxe), Marcos Brito, stated that the entity would follow the path indicated by the IOC to follow in the Olympic movement. The position was reinforced in a communiqué published this Thursday. “We have the responsibility to seek the path to make it possible for our athletes to win the Olympics and that this portrays every Brazilian citizen. Our fans deserve to participate in the Olympic Games, as well as the results to be expressive”, reported CBBoxe, in a note signed by the official. “In case there is a new entity that will be responsible for leading the Olympic journey of boxing, we join. That’s what matters for our path: getting the necessary direction for boxing to remain Olympic and for us to continue getting good results and making our people proud. We will not shy away from providing our athletes with participation in any competition that brings the satisfaction of winning […] Whenever it is possible to reconcile important tournaments, we will be present, prioritizing Olympism”, concluded the note. Boxing has been present at the Olympics since 1904, in Saint Louis (United States). Brazil was on the podium for the first time in the City of Mexico, in 1968, with Servílio de Oliveira’s bronze.At the London Games (Great Britain), in 2012, there were three medals, with Adriana Araújo (bronze) and the brothers Yamaguchi (bronze) and Esquiva Falcão (silver). In Rio de Janeiro, Robson Conceição won the first Brazilian Olympic gold, the second came five years later, in Tokyo, with Hebert Conceição.Also in the Japanese capital, Beatriz Ferreira (silver) and Abner Teixeira (bronze) also stood out.


Agência Brasil