Boxing to remain 2028 Olympic sport in Los Angeles; New gender rules to be introduced

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) General Assembly's unanimous vote on Thursday followed a recommendation from the IOC executive board, which had provisionally recognized World Boxing as the sport's governing body in February.

Michael Müller, sporting director of the German Boxing Association (DBV), who is also on the board of the new World Boxing Association, described it as a "great decision."

Müller told DW that the vote gave national federations and Olympic committees much needed planning security until the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

"At the same time, it is a great obligation for us to continue to work closely with the IOC to complete the outstanding tasks until final and full recognition as an international boxing federation for Olympic boxing [has been achieved]."

At the Olympic Games, the international federations of the individual sports are responsible for organizing the competitions in their disciplines and ensuring that everything runs smoothly.

World Boxing achieves recognition

Boxing has a long Olympic tradition. It was already practiced at the ancient Olympic Games and has been part of the modern Games since 1904, but recent leadership issues have affected the sport's reputation.

At the Tokyo Games in 2021 and the 2024 Games in Paris, the IOC organized the boxing itself because the International Boxing Association (IBA), which actually should have been responsible for this, was suspended in 2019 due to suspicions of corruption and manipulated judging. The IBA is headed by Umar Kremlev of Russia, who is also, a close confidant of President Vladimir Putin. The association is primarily financed by Russia's state-owned company Gazprom.

In 2023, the IOC General Assembly revoked the IBA's Olympic rights. The IOC had repeatedly made it clear that boxing would only remain an Olympic sport at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles if a new world federation came forward and organized the competitions.

Now, World Boxing is set to do just that. Several national associations founded the organization in April 2023 as an alternative to the IBA. Germany's DBV joined them four months later and now, World Boxing currently has 84 members across five continents. More are expected to join given that the IOC has stipulated that boxers will only be allowed to compete at the LA Games in three years' time if their national association is a member of World Boxing.

New gender rules to be introduced

Boxing caused a stir during the 2024 Games in Paris — partly because the suspended IBA had fueled controversy on social media. It stated that eventual gold medal winners Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan had failed unspecified gender tests at the 2022 and 2023 world championships, and were therefore not allowed to compete in the women's competitions.

The IOC has repeatedly defended Khelif and Lin's admission to the competitions in Paris and described the IBA's tests as "unlawful." According to the IOC, both boxers were born and raised as women and have been boxing in women's competitions for years. Their gender is also stated in their passports, a decisive factor for their eligibility for competition.

World Boxing has announced that it will soon be drawing up guidelines for transgender and DSD (Differences of Sex Development) athletes, saying these would ensure “fair competition conditions for men and women." However, the terms transgender and DSD are not yet in World Boxing's rule book.