LAUSANNE: Boxers whose national federations are not part of the global boxing body provisionally recognised by the International Olympic Committee could miss out on the Los Angeles 2028 Games if the sport is included, IOC chief Thomas Bach said on Friday.

The IOC last month granted provisional recognition to World Boxing in a major step towards the sport’s inclusion in the 2028 Olympics.

The boxing competition at the Paris 2024 Games was run by the IOC after it stripped the International Boxing Association of recognition in 2023 over its failure to implement reforms on governance and finance.

It has not included the sport on the LA 2028 programme yet, having urged national boxing federations to create a new global boxing body. World Boxing, which has close to 80 members, was launched in 2023.

“We were very satisfied with the development in World Boxing,” Bach, whose term ends in June, told a media roundtable. “We’ll have in the next weeks a meeting of the Olympic programme commission [to] make a proposal for the programme in Los Angeles and depending on their proposal [that] would lead to the vote in the IOC session about the inclusion of boxing in the Olympic programme.”

With provisional recognition granted to World Boxing it is very unlikely for the very popular Olympic sport to miss out on the LA Games but Bach said athletes whose federations had not joined the boxing body could.

“Only National Olympic Committees can nominate their boxers for the Olympic Games and they will have to refer to their member federations who have to have the recognition of the IOC,” he said. “Otherwise it would be a pity for the boxers and the athletes.”

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2025