PARIS — The fledgling organization governing the fight to keep boxing in the Olympics is about to receive a major membership boost.
World Boxing expects to expand its membership base to at least 50 national federations in the weeks following the Paris Olympics, president Boris Van Der Vorst told The Associated Press. The organization already has 37 members, including most of the top Western national federations.
Van Der Vorst said he left Paris even more convinced that his sport could make “the greatest comeback in the history of the Olympic movement”.
Van Der Vorst has spent the Games talking to boxing leaders and federations as World Boxing tries to unite the sport under the only practical alternative to the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association, which has been exiled from the Olympic movement. World Boxing must appeal to each federation individually to bring about this seismic change in the sport — and time is running out.
Boxing is not currently on the program for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and the International Olympic Committee has repeatedly said the sport must find a suitable recent governing body, likely in early 2025, to return to the Games lineup. The IOC body has run the last two boxing tournaments at the Olympics.
“There is only one reason to join [World Boxing]“To save our sport,” Van Der Vorst told the AP on Saturday.
Five years after the IBA was banned from the Olympics, the group unexpectedly found itself in the spotlight again in Paris, amid allegations against boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting that they both failed questionable qualifying tests for women’s boxing at last year’s world championships.
Amidst a worldwide storm of criticism and unfounded speculation, Khelif and Lin won gold medals for the best performances of their boxing careers.
After repeating its claims without disclosing any evidence, the IBA held a bizarre news conference in Paris on Monday during which its president, Umar Kremlev, spent more time criticizing IOC President Thomas Bach on Zoom than answering questions about boxers.
Van Der Vorst knows all about the IBA’s leadership woes. He ran for president in 2022 but was barred from the elections by Kremlev in a shady move that the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled was ineffective.
But the long-time Dutch boxing executive refused to relish the IBA’s mishaps in Paris. He reiterated his determination for World Boxing to replace the IBA in the Olympic movement, while acknowledging that his sport had been cast in an unflattering lithe by the antics of the banned group.
“You have to realize that we decided that this is not a competition between us and the IBA,” Van Der Vorst said. “We have only one mission, and that is to keep boxing at the heart of the Olympic movement. We try to do what is best for the boxers and the national federations.”
Earlier in the tournament, Van Der Vorst spoke to the AP about his feelings about the controversy surrounding Khelifa and Lin, who have faced online harassment and worldwide criticism due to misconceptions about their femininity.
“We have only one mission, and that is to keep boxing at the heart of the Olympic movement. We try to do what is best for the boxers and the national federations.”
World Boxing President Boris Van Der Vorst in an interview with The Associated Press
Van Der Vorst said he supported Khelifa and Lin’s right to be in Paris under the criteria used by the IOC. World Boxing has a medical commission that will develop eligibility rules in the coming weeks and months, and Van Der Vorst said the group had noted changing attitudes and standards in other Olympic sports governing bodies.
“It’s a complicated case and also for World Boxing, it’s very critical that we have already appointed our medical committee to involve experts,” Van Der Vorst said. “Making sure that the safety and integrity of the sport are the two most critical things that should be addressed there. But it’s a really complicated case.”
World Boxing is also busy staging three major tournaments in the coming months, along with a number of smaller events, while adding staff and continuing to build a long-term plan. The body is trying to show its ability to be an authority on the sport as it hopes to win IOC approval to host another Olympic cycle.
Although World Boxing has steadily increased its membership since its inception and boasts a presence on six continents, it still faces a major obstacle in the form of the intransigence of many long-time IBA members who are either financially dependent on the banned organization or support its leadership politically.
It will be a challenge to recruit a number of key members, including some of the world’s top federations at the moment. Uzbekistan finished another excellent Olympic cycle with five gold medals – the most of any country in 20 years – while China collected three golds and two silvers. Cuba, despite winning just two medals in Paris, remains one of the most critical boxing federations in the world.
No one is sure what the IOC will think if World Boxing fails to secure partnerships with some of the most decorated federations, but Van Der Vorst is determined to continue working towards his ambitious goal.
“I respect every decision of every national federation and I understand the difficulties they face,” Van Der Vorst said. “You can’t imagine the challenges. We’ve had some setbacks, some difficulties, but we are absolutely convinced that our hand will be raised at the end of this year.”
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