We Can’t Have the Olympics Without…?

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

An opinion piece from the only Donald worth listening to…

Full Stop – In British English grammar a full stop is a lengthy pause, in the US, you call it a period. In the UK that tends to suggest feminine products. Here it means a period of time where I look at something in boxing in a little more depth. I am typing from my perspective of a fan who watches the sport closely. It’s an opinion. It is my opinion. Don’t like it? There are other opinions out there but if you don’t like it then good, debate and democracy are a good thing. If you do like it, feel free to spread the word.

We Can’t Have the Olympics without…?

Boxing, can we?

Oh, yes, we can…

Simply put, the corrupt practices of AIBA and its legacy organization IBA has left the Olympics with a dilemma it has sought to resolve. There is clearly a wish, however, for the Olympics, within its movement and representatives that they clearly want boxing to continue in the Games.

The greatest obstacle to that? Boxing itself.

Introduced in 1904, and present in all the Olympics apart from in 1912, because it was held in a country – Sweden – where boxing was illegal, it has brought together some of the greatest exponents of the sport we have ever seen. Ali, Frazier, Lomachenko, Usyk, Joshua, Leonard… the list goes on.

But no legacy can escape the fact that by the time it landed in Rio, in 2016, it was rotten to the core. A 2021 report into what happened during that tournament found widespread evidence of cheating. Bias existed towards Russian athletes and, given that AIBA, after being called out upon its practices for years was dominated by Russian administrators, this was hardly news to those who had eyes. We could see what was going on.

And it stank.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to expel the International Boxing Association (IBA) from the Olympic movement. Backed by sixty-nine members, one vote against and ten abstentions, it represents the first ever time the IOC has kicked out a governing body in its 129-year history. The IOC then stepped in and organized the judging for Tokyo in 2021. A similar system is proposed for Paris later this year.

Because, as yet, boxing still cannot be trusted.

AIBA is now IBA. IBA still exists and has been holding their competitions to decide who shall box at the Olympics this year. It has not had all of the fighters from all of the countries you would expect involved because, quite sensibly, the bigger countries have joined World Boxing, a new kid in town, trying hard to become the face of amateur boxing internationally, for their Olympic pathway. World Boxing have met with the IOC to press their claim to taking over from the IBA. IBA, who claim they have done everything asked of them are spending their time progressing with their own agenda whilst nobody wants to talk to them – apart from Russian and Belarussian boxers who are being lionized by them. Plus ca change…

Right now, boxing is not on the roster for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The last time the Olympic were in the City of Angels, Ali lit the torch. Frail, shaking but with such dignity, Ali stood as a beacon. He symbolized the change that has happened. An Olympic champion, so sickened by racism that he threw away his gold medal, now managing to endorse the spirit with which the Olympics should be bestowed – equality, fairness and playing the game. IBA and AIBA before it was the polar opposite of that.

World Boxing has already staged tournaments, countries are joining to be part of their movement and they look like the best option to become the “International Federation” called for by the IOC to take up the reins and run the sport in the amateur code, making them eligible to run the Olympic competition. They already have 25 members though Mongolia and the Philippines are the only two Asian countries currently members and Nigeria the only African country. As well as a significant upturn in membership World Boxing needs the support of a global body of National Federations and has to show evidence of proper governance and leadership for the sport.

But it shall take courage for some national federations to come away from IBA and join World Boxing, apparently. It should actually take none. The reality is that if they do not, then from 2028 onwards boxing shall start to find itself in a cold storage from which it shall struggle to return. No sport has a right to be included anywhere. No sport has a right to behave unchallenged and boxing lost that right years ago, even if it existed at all. The future needs resolved because of all the future champions and all of the future contests and of all the future heartbreaks that make this sport one of the best to witness, the sport itself deserves to be at the highest amateur competition, offering the highest amateur accolades to those currently training beyond normal endurance to be there.

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