Olympic Boxing to be overseen by IOC for 2024 Games
The International Boxing Association will not be in charge of qualifying athletes for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Instead, the International Olympic Committee has put a new qualifying system in place that utilizes National Olympic Committee tournaments as a qualifier for the Games in 2024.
Over the weekend the IOC and their frustrations with the IBA came to a head as the IOC is overlooking the qualification process for the upcoming Olympic cycle. Last June the organization decided that the IBA could not be the authority for boxing and approved in a meeting today on qualification. The IOC and the National Olympic Committee (NOC) will be the crux of all qualification tournaments. The events will be as followed:
- Pan American Games – Santiago 2023
- European Game – Krakow 2023
- Pacific Games – Honiara 2023
- Asian Games – Hangzhou 2023
- ANOCA (Africa) – multisport event to be determined
After these events, the IOC and NOC will overlook world qualification tournaments for the 2024. This process will be much simpler than previous events. The IOC hopes to simplify it and give every boxer an equal pathway.
Olympic Boxing: The Problem Child
Earlier in the year, Richard McLaren opened a probe into the corruption of Olympic boxing citing bouts such as Michael Conlan losing his Olympic match. Since the probe and expose happened, Olympic boxing has been under intense scrutiny by the IOC which threatened to exclude the sport from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
The IBA has rebranded itself in response to this and has been adapting new protocols and working with boxers to get the system right.
Despite all the work and changes, the IOC still isn’t satisfied, and rightfully so. Olympic boxing is the problem child for corruption along with weightlifting with PEDs.
Boxing still has an opportunity to make the 2028 Games but need to put out significant changes to prove they are working on the problem and turning a major corner. Judo, taekwondo, and wrestling are a part of the programmer still. Karate was excluded but it and kickboxing will get a shot to plead their case for the 2028 cycle.
Stay posted to My MMA News for all the latest news surrounding Olympic boxing!
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In addition to covering Olympic boxing for My MMA News, Blaine Henry, the author, also analyzes fights from all combat sports across the globe.
Blaine Henry can be found on Twitter, on his Substack, and Discord.
