Russia’s Umar Kremlev will remain president of the International Boxing Association (IBA) after its extraordinary congress on Sunday voted by a large majority against holding a new election, leaving the sport’s Olympic future uncertain.
Dutch candidate Boris van der Vorst’s hopes of challenging the Kremlev for the presidency ended after 106 delegates voted against a new election, with 36 votes in favor and four abstentions. Kremlev was elected unopposed in May after Van der Vorst was declared ineligible. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled in June that Van der Vorst had been wrongfully prevented from running.
Sunday’s decision cast fresh doubt on boxing’s efforts to preserve its Olympic spot beyond 2024, following a series of warnings from the International Olympic Committee over IBA governance. “We have to get to the point where boxing will be part of the Olympics in 2024 as well as in 2028. We will do our best,” Kremlev said, through an interpreter. “No one can exclude us from anywhere.”
The IBA, the world governing body for amateur boxing, was stripped of any involvement in the Tokyo Olympics last year due to governance, financial, refereeing and ethical issues. Boxing is not on the initial program of the Los Angeles Games in 2028. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) manages the Paris 2024 competition.
IOC sporting director Kit McConnell said this month that the IBA’s slow pace of reform and financial dependence on Russian energy company Gazprom, its main sponsor, were cause for serious concern. The IBA
suspended the Ukrainian federation on Friday, leaving it unable to vote. The federation had written to IBA members on Thursday asking Kremlev to resign or be removed from his post. The IBA does not recognize Kyrylo Shevchenko as president of the Ukrainian federation but instead considers Volodymyr Prodyvus, a Kremlev ally who left Ukraine after the Russian invasion in February and is now IBA vice-president. as chief.
The extraordinary congress in Yerevan, Armenia was delayed for an hour due to a power failure. The number of national federations present increased from 127 to 151 after the resumption of the debates, including 99 in person and 52 online. IBA General Secretary George Yerolimpos brushed aside questions about rising voter numbers, saying there were a number of late arrivals.
(This story has not been edited by the Devdiscourse team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)