Boxing is expected to be part of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said Monday, with the tournaments to be run by World Boxing, the newly recognized governing body attempting to salvage the sport’s presence on the program.
Bach’s announcement eased doubts about whether one of the oldest sports in the Summer Games would be included, following years of disputes about how international competitions are governed and clear antagonism during the Paris Games last year regarding the inclusion of two women, whose eligibility became a flashpoint of the global event.
World Boxing was granted provisional recognition by the IOC board as the sport’s new governing body in February. It is a breakaway group from the International Boxing Association, which spent the Paris Games railing against Bach and other leaders for allowing Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan to compete when they had been declared ineligible under murky stances from the IBA’s world championships in 2023.
Both women won golds in Paris in their weight classes, and the IOC affirmed their eligibility to compete even as the IBA said — without giving details and with conflicting public statements — that Khelif and Lin had failed what it characterized…
