USA Boxing Outlines Plans To Protect The Sport’s Olympic Future
Mike McAtee, the executive director of USA Boxing, has revealed measures are being taken to ensure boxing’s inclusion in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Boxing’s future as an Olympic sport is very much under threat, and as things stand, Paris 2024 will be the last time it will feature on the Olympic program.
Its exclusion from L.A – and, at present, all future Games – is a response from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to suspend the International Boxing Association (IBA) from organizing and running the Olympic boxing tournaments.
The IOC took the decision to expel the IBA due to concerns over the federation’s lack of transparency related to its governance, financial dealings, and corruption. To ensure boxing’s inclusion at the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Games, a special team was created within the IOC to organize and run the events, but that has been disbanded ahead of L.A 2028.
A rival federation, World Boxing, has been formed with the aim of taking over the Olympic boxing program and wider amateur boxing scene. It includes several leading national and regional boxing federations, including USA Boxing, that jumped ship from the IBA.
McAtee explained that several conditions need to be met to satisfy the IOC and ensure boxing will be back on the Olympic program, and that USA Boxing and its partners are working hard to make it happen ahead of the deadline at the start of 2025.
“As of now, boxing is still not on the program for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics,” McAtee told Boxing Scene. “However, the IOC has acknowledged that an international federation needs to be engaged to oversee boxing for the Games. USA Boxing, along with about 42 other countries, has joined World Boxing, a new international federation we helped found.
“World Boxing is working to meet IOC requirements, such as anti-doping regulations, financial transparency, and integrity in the field of play. We’re optimistic that a decision on boxing for LA 2028 will be made by the IOC in early 2025.”
McAtee revealed that World Boxing will need to show through action that they have the resources and capabilities to comply with the regulations set out by the IOC, which is why an international qualifier event will be held in the next few months.
“There are around 35 to 40 requirements that need to be met, as outlined by the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF),” McAtee said. “These include things like selection procedures for officials, governance standards, and financial transparency.
“For example, World Boxing will host an international event, the world qualifier in Colorado later this year, to demonstrate our compliance with these requirements. Each of these elements is necessary to ensure the sport is governed with integrity and transparency, and we are working diligently to fulfill all of them.”
Boxing is one of the most traditional and historic sports in the modern Olympics; it made its debut at the 1904 Games in St Louis and has featured in every Olympics since except for Stockholm 1912 due to Sweden’s ban on the sport.
The Olympics has also provided a vital career pathway for fighters aiming to join the professional ranks, with some of the greatest fighters in history first making a name for themselves as Olympians, including Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Katie Taylor, and countless others.
