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Boxing poised to get go-ahead to be part of Games in 2028
Nick Ball (left) defending his Featherweight WBA title against TJ Doheny at Liverpool Arena, Liverpool, March 15, 2025
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BOXING is set to be included at the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach said today that the organisation’s executive board had recommended the sport be part of the programme for the Games, following an earlier decision on February 27 to recognise World Boxing as the sport’s international federation.
The boxing tournaments at the last two Games were organised by the IOC, which suspended the International Boxing Association (IBA) in 2019 over governance issues and then withdrew recognition for it completely in 2023.
The IOC had indicated boxing would only be included in 2028 if a new partner federation was identified. The executive board’s decision will need to be ratified at the IOC Session, which officially launches on Tueday.
Bach said at a press conference today: “After the provisional recognition of World Boxing in February we were in the position to take this decision.
“I’m very confident the (IOC) Session will approve it, so that all boxers of the world then have certainty that they can participate in the Olympic Games in LA2028 if their national federation is recognised by World Boxing.”
The IOC later clarified that federations would need to be members of World Boxing at the time of the qualification events, with IOC sports director Kit McConnell saying he anticipated there would now be an “acceleration” of national federations joining.
The World Boxing website lists 84 federations as members currently, including GB Boxing and USA Boxing.
The IOC’s oversight of the women’s boxing competition in Paris last summer faced criticism and drew controversy over the inclusion of two athletes — Imane Khelif and Lin Yu Ting — who the IBA had disqualified from the previous year’s World Championships for allegedly failing gender eligibility tests.
Khelif is taking legal action over reports she has male XY chromosomes and insists she was born a woman and lives as a woman.
The World Boxing website states that its sex eligibility policy is under revision by the medical committee.
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