PARIS (AP) — The newly founded umbrella organization fighting to keep boxing at the Olympic Games is facing a significant increase in membership.

World Boxing expects to expand its membership base in the weeks following the conclusion of the turbulent Olympic Games in ParisPresident Boris Van Der Vorst told the Associated Press. The organization already has 37 members, including most of the major Western national associations.

Van Der Vorst said he was leaving Paris even more confident that his sport could make “the greatest comeback of the Olympic movement ever”.

Van Der Vorst spent the Games speaking to leading boxing athletes and federation officials while World Boxing tries to unite the sport under the only practical alternative to the Russian-dominated International Boxing Federationwhich has been banned from the Olympic movement. World Boxing must court each federation individually to achieve this profound change in the sport – and the clock is ticking.

Boxing is not currently on the program for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and the International Olympic Committee has repeatedly said that the sport must find a suitable new governing body – likely by early 2025 – to be reinstated on the program for the Games. An IOC division has run the last two Olympic boxing tournaments.

“There is only one reason to join World Boxing and that is to save our sport,” Van Der Vorst told AP on Saturday.

Five years after the IBA was excluded from the Olympic Games, the organization improbably returned to the spotlight in Paris with its lawsuits against boxers Imane Khelif And Lin Yu-tingand said both had failed dubious aptitude tests for women’s boxing at last year’s world championships.

Amid a global storm of criticism and uninformed speculation Khelif and Lin both won gold medals, showing the best performances of their boxing careers.

After repeating her claims without providing any actual evidence, the IBA held a bizarre press conference Monday in Paris, where its president Umar Kremlev spent more time railing against IOC President Thomas Bach via Zoom than answering questions about the boxers.

Van Der Vorst is aware of the IBA’s current leadership problems. He ran for its presidency in 2022, but was excluded from the election by Kremlev in a dubious maneuver. The International Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned the decision, but to no avail.

But the long-time Dutch boxing manager refused to revel in the IBA’s misadventures in Paris. He simply reiterated his determination that World Boxing should replace the IBA in the Olympic movement – although he was still aware that his entire sport was being portrayed in an unfavourable light by the antics of the banned group.

“You have to realise that we have decided that there is no competition between us and the IBA,” said Van Der Vorst. “We have only one mission and that is to keep boxing at the heart of the Olympic movement. We try to do the best for the boxers and the national federations.”

At the start of the tournament Van Der Vorst told the AP his feelings about the controversy surrounding Khelif and Lin, who faced online bullying and global criticism due to misconceptions about their femininity.

Van Der Vorst said he supported Khelif and Lin’s right to compete in Paris under the IOC’s criteria. World Boxing has a medical committee that will draw up eligibility requirements in the coming weeks and months, and Van Der Vorst said the group had noted changing attitudes and standards among other governing bodies of Olympic sports.

“It’s a complicated matter and it’s also very important for World Boxing that we have already instructed our medical committee to bring in experts,” said Van Der Vorst. “Ensuring the safety and integrity of the sport are the two most important points that need to be addressed here. But it’s a really complicated matter.”

World Boxing is also busy organizing three major tournaments in the coming months, as well as several smaller events, hiring additional staff and drawing up a long-term plan. The federation is trying to prove its ability as an authority on the sport and hopes to receive approval from the IOC to organize the next Olympic cycle.

Although World Boxing has regularly accepted new members since its founding and is now represented on six continents, a major obstacle is the uncompromising nature of many long-standing IBA members, who are either financially dependent on the banned association or politically on the side of its leadership.

It will be a challenge to recruit many key members, including some of the world’s best federations today. Uzbekistan completed another outstanding Olympic cycle with five gold medals – the most by any nation in 20 years – while China took home three gold and two silver medals. Cuba, despite winning only two medals in Paris, remains one of the world’s most important boxing federations.

What the IOC will think if World Boxing fails to sign some of its most successful federations is anyone’s guess, but Van Der Vorst is determined to continue working towards this ambitious goal.

“I respect every decision of every national federation and understand the difficulties they face,” said Van Der Vorst. “You cannot imagine the challenges. We have had several setbacks, several difficulties, but we are absolutely convinced that at the end of this year we will raise our hand.”

___

AP Olympiad: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games