Olympic Boxing’s Bleak Hopes Beyond Paris

It is Ireland’s most successful Olympic sport but chances are now fading for it to be held as part of the games after Paris in 2024.

The ruling body the International Boxing Association was suspended from the IOC in 2019 amid concerns over governance, transparency, and funding.

Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 are being organised by the IOC but that was only ever intended as a short-term fix.

The split between the two organisations is now deeply wrapped up in global politics. The IBA voted by a 75 percent majority at the weekend not to allow a challenge to existing President Umar Kremlev who stabilized the finances through a deal with Russian Gas giant Gazprom.

That is the same Gazprom that UEFA ended ties with in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

Adding to the tension is the fact that the IBA Vice President Volodymyr Prodyvus is Ukrainian but has been removed from his domestic position, allegedly by order of the Ukraine government.

Kremlev was pictured in conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month.

The Irish Amateur Boxing Association is one of 21 national bodies that had called for a new election to go ahead and for relations with the IOC to be mended.

A final decision on Boxing’s exclusion from the LA 28 programme is expected in March but with the clock ticking it now seems likely that the future of the sport as part of the Games would be bleak.

This will have repercussions for the sport on a global basis, and in Ireland where Sport Ireland funding at the high-performance level is based largely around the Olympic Cycle.

15 per cent of this years funding in this area of over €700,000 has been witheld in a dispute over domestic governance reform though the €235,000 paid to seven athletes, including Kellie Harrington, under the international carding scheme is not impacted.

Harrington and Katie Taylor as well as Michael Carruth have won Gold medals for Ireland down the years, joining Mohammed Ali, Joe Frazier, George Forman, Vladimir Klitschko and Anthony Joshua on the Olympic roll of honour.