USA Boxing Statement Regarding 2028 Olympics

Recently the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the approved “core sports” program for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games (LA28), as expected boxing was not on the list even though it was on the original list submitted and approved in 2017.

Over the past three years, the IOC has played a critical role in keeping the sport of boxing in the Olympic movement, despite the challenges faced by our International Federation, International Boxing Association (IBA) formerly AIBA. Through the implementation of an IOC’s Boxing Task Force overseeing all aspects of qualification, as well as the organization of boxing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, the IOC invested in amateur Olympic-style boxing by committing massive amounts of time, energy and resources into our sport to allow it to continue moving forward while IBA serves its suspension and corrects areas of governance, change of leadership, and address the culture of corruption that lead to bout manipulation for years.

Since September 2019, USA Boxing has worked with the IOC Boxing Task Force, as part of their, “Experts Working Group”, to provide support throughout this process, and we are grateful for the tireless effort they have put forth to allow boxing to take place in the Tokyo Olympics and in future Olympic Games.

With the Tokyo Olympics now behind us, the IOC has continued to monitor the progress of IBA in addressing key areas of concern that were identified during and after the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. The recent statements made by the IOC about boxing in the program for Paris 2024 and LA 2028 are a continuation of the strict monitoring that is in place to ensure our sport rectifies the areas needing improvement. As it stands today, boxing is scheduled to be part of Paris 2024, and the determination of including boxing at the LA 2028 Olympic Games will be determined in late May or early June 2023.

While there currently remains uncertainty to our sport moving forward in the Olympic movement, USA Boxing, with the full support of the United States Olympic Committee (USOPC), is working within the international boxing community to help IBA in the areas of good governance, renewing leadership and advocating for long-term oversite of the field of play so our boxers can compete without the worry of bout manipulation. By working with our peer National Boxing Federations, we can assist IBA on its road to fulfilling all requirements set forth by the IOC and to building a strong foundation for the future of Olympic-style boxing.