(ATR) "Boxing is moving forward for Tokyo."
While the sport will move forward, it will include two oversight groups hoping to lead the troubled boxing federation out of a constant stream of mismanagement and accusations of impropriety and mistrust within the Olympic Movement.
IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell briefed reporters at the end of the first of the two-day IOC Executive Board meeting in Lausanne that was dominated by talk of AIBA.
A five-member taskforce will oversee the remainder of the process for boxing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, pending approval from the IOC Session next week. Rubberstamping is an almost guaranteed outcome.
Moreover, IOC members Nenad Lalovic and Richard Carrion will form an "initial inquiry committee" that will "look at the wider relationship with AIBA," McConnell said.
No members of the current AIBA federation at large were selected, perhaps a reflection of the entrenched problems facing AIBA’s stakeholders in overcoming its crises.
"With the taskforce we need to keep things as simple as possible," McConnell said, adding the group will focus on running the 2020 Olympic boxing tournament and its qualification process, not "fundamentally" changing the sport.
Were new reform opportunities to arise from the taskforce’s work, McConnell noted that those would not necessarily be ignored.
"Hopefully there are elements we can look at that can provide sustainable change." One potential change would be the establishment of an athletes commission within AIBA.
Under the the aegis of the taskforce, National Olympic Committees, not the national federations, must put forward boxers for the Olympics, with the IOC to approve nominees.
IOC member and International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) president Morinari Watanabe is the chair of the taskforce.
He is joined by IOC member from Uganda William Blick, IOC executive board member Willi Kaltschmitt of Guatemala, International Judo Federation President Marius Vizer and IOC Athletes Commission memberAya Mahmoud Medancy of Egypt.
McConnell said the taskforce will have full-time staff but the staff won’t be run by the IOC. The staff will, however, have a full background check conducted by the IOC. No staff have been appointed yet.
A group of athlete ambassador boxers provide advice and consultation and will hope to be one male and female representative from each of the five regions.
A controversial international federation president who slammed the IOC and Thomas Bach at the 2014 Sportaccord General Assembly Vizer’s appointment could be seen as a surprise. "Mister Vizer and his federation are strong partners of the IOC," McConnell said, noting the overlap with boxing and fellow combat sport judo.
"When we looked at the makeup of the taskforce it makes sense for his federation to be there.
"We’re really happy he has a lot to offer."
Reiterating that the taskforce will keep things as simple as possible for boxing, McConnell said AIBA referees will continue to be used so that a new slate of referee training and selection need not happen. Additionally, the Tokyo 2020 boxing test event will take place in October as scheduled.
Specific details regarding the future of boxing’s administration will be decided soon, McConnell said.
"The key thing is giving athletes and national federations as much time as possible".
For general comments or questions,click here.
25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
