LAUSANNE, Switzerland – The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has provisionally recognized World Boxing as the governing body for the sport, a crucial step toward reinstating boxing at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The IOC severed ties with the International Boxing Association (IBA) over financial, governance, and ethical concerns, organizing boxing events independently at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
“Keeping its place at the Olympic Games is absolutely critical to the future of our sport at every level, from the grassroots to the highest echelons of professional boxing, and this decision by the IOC takes us one step closer to our objective of seeing boxing restored to the Olympic program,” said World Boxing President Boris van der Vorst.
World Boxing, founded in 2023, has 78 member nations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, and Brazil.
IOC President Thomas Bach previously warned that national boxing federations needed to establish a reliable international body for the sport to secure its place in Los Angeles 2028.
In its statement, the IOC acknowledged that World Boxing “has demonstrated strong willingness and effort in enhancing good governance and implementation, to be compliant with the appropriate standards.”
Gennadiy Golovkin, a former two-time unified world middleweight champion and silver medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics, leads World Boxing’s Olympic Commission and has been closely working with the IOC.
“Receiving provisional Olympic recognition from the IOC is an important achievement and demonstrates that our sport is on the right path,” Golovkin said.
The IOC and IBA have also clashed over the eligibility of two female boxers, Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, whom the IBA banned from the 2023 World Championships due to gender ineligibility issues.
Despite the IBA’s ruling, the IOC allowed them to compete in Paris, where both won gold medals.
With IOC recognition, World Boxing moves closer to securing the sport’s future on the Olympic stage.
