The International Olympic Committee’s Executive Board said on Friday that since the IOC has not recognised any governing body for boxing, the inclusion of the sport for Los Angeles 2028 has been put on hold, while recommending the inclusion of modern pentathlon and weightlifting.
The announcement was made here after the conclusion of the two-day Executive Board (EB) meeting, which will be followed by the 141st session of the IOC from October 15-17, to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The IOC session has also proposed to add cricket (T20) along with four other sports — squash, flag football, lacrosse (sixes) and baseball-softball — for the LA Games 2028, which would merely be a formality since they have been cleared by the Executive Board.
“The IOC EB also reviewed the status of three sports which were not part of the initial sports programme (boxing, modern pentathlon and weightlifting) following the decision by the IOC session in February 2022 to approve the inclusion of 28 sports on the initial sports programme of the Olympic Games LA28,” the IOC said in a statement on Friday.
“Following the IOC Session’s decision to withdraw the recognition of the International Boxing Association (IBA), the IOC has not recognised another governing body for Olympic boxing.
“Therefore, any decision regarding the inclusion of boxing on the LA28 sports programme is put on hold,” the statement added.
The IOC EB informed that horse riding (equestrian show jumping) has been replaced by obstacle racing as one of the events in modern pentathlon.
“The IOC EB recommends its inclusion on the LA28 sports programme, acknowledging the replacement of horse riding with obstacle racing and the optimisation work conducted by the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) to reduce costs and complexity,” it said.
“Without the replacement of horse riding with obstacle racing, the sport would not have been included in the programme.”
For weightlifting, the IOC EB said that the recommendation was made following a decision on anti-doping management by the International Weightlifting Federation.
“The IOC EB recommends its inclusion on the LA28 sports programme following the decision by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) to delegate its anti-doping management to the International Testing Agency (ITA) and its sanctioning to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) at least until the end of 2028,” the IOC said.
Given the challenges around climate change, the IOC EB also accepted the proposal to consider double allocation of Winter Games in 2030 and 2034.
“There are currently 15 NOCs on three continents that already have at least 80 per cent of the venues needed, which means having at least nine out of the 11 venues required for the Olympic Winter Games,” it said.
“10 out of the 15 NOCs have either recently hosted the Games or are interested in hosting the Games in the future.
“By 2040, two of these 15 NOCs will no longer have the necessary reliability for the Olympic Winter Games held in February and five will not be for the Paralympic Winter Games held in March, which means a pool of potential hosts reduced to around 10 NOCs,” the IOC continued.
Over the next two days, the IOC session will discuss the issue as it got the ‘green light’ from the EB.
“As more time is needed to address the complexity of this issue, the Future Host Commission has proposed to the IOC EB to consider a double allocation of the 2030 and 2034 Olympic Winter Games, should the appropriate conditions exist,” the IOC said.
“The IOC EB gave the green light for this proposal, which has been supported by the presidents of all seven Olympic IFs (International Federations). This will now be put to the IOC session for further discussion,” it added.
IOC president Thomas Bach said athletes with Russian passports would be invited as neutrals but not the NOC of Russia.
“First of all we have not suspended the athletes with Russian passports, because they have not incorporated these Ukrainian regions in the National Olympic Committee,” he said.
“This has been done by the National Olympic Committee, we are following our principle which we have always been following that we do not punish or sanction athletes for acts of their officials or their government,” Bach said.
Bach said the IOC will continue to ‘monitor’ the developments and that there is no deadline for the Russian Olympic Committee to revert its suspension.
“There is no deadline. The decision says clearly ‘until further notice’ and we will keep monitoring the developments. There is no time pressure,” he said.
“We reserve the right to invite by ourselves the individual neutral athletes with Russian passport and this means that the ROC will have no role to play. This will be direct invitations,” he added.
Bach clarified that no action was taken against Russian members of IOC, former Olympic champion pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and Shamil Tarpischev as the governing body believes they had no role to play.
“They are not Russia’s representative in IOC but IOC’s representatives in Russia,” he said.
“To ensure equal treatment between officials and athletes, we have nevertheless submitted these IOC members in Russia for an assessment by the IOC ethics commission.
“The understanding of the ethics commission is that neither Ms Isinbayeva nor Mr Tarpischev had contractual links with the Russian military or security agencies or supported the war in Ukraine,” he continued.
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