LAUSANNE: The Inter­national Olympic Commi­ttee (IOC) on Thursday raised the possibility of boxing being excluded from the 2024 Paris Games, saying its Russian-led world body showed it had “no real interest” in the sport or its athletes.

The International Boxing Association (IBA) was stri­pped of involvement in the Tokyo Olympics and boxing is not on the initial progra­mme for the 2028 Los Ange­les Games, pending refo­rms demanded by the IOC.

Qualifying for the Paris 2024 boxing tournament is being organised by the IOC but it said that concerns regarding the IBA mean it will take further decisions that “may have to include the cancellation of boxing for the Olympic Games Paris”.

An IOC spokesperson said: “The recent IBA Cong­ress has shown once more that IBA has no real interest in the sport of boxing and the boxers, but is only interested in its own power.

“The decisions and discussions to keep boxers away from the Olympic qualifiers and the Olympic Games cannot be understood differently.”

The IBA is run by Russian Umar Kremlev with backing from Russian energy firm Gazprom. The IOC spokesperson said the IBA extending its deal with Gazprom recently showed it had “no will to understand the real issues”.

The spokesperson said the IOC’s concerns included the handling of the CAS decision.

“The IOC will have to take all this into consideration when it takes further decisions, which may — after these latest developments -- have to include the cancellation of boxing for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.”

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2022