Boxing potentially could be nixed in 2028 Olympics

The proposal to add five new sports to the 2028 L.A. Games has “once again left boxing fighting for its inclusion,” according to Ian O’Riordan of the IRISH TIMES. The addition of cricket, baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse and squash will increase the LA28 program to 33 sports, one more than next year’s Paris program, which “already has an overall reduced athlete quota of 10,500.” All five additional sports are now “set to be ratified” at the 141st IOC session in Mumbai, which starts on Sunday. Part of the concern now is there “may simply be no room for boxing when the IOC reassess their quota for 2028.” Four sports are “currently not listed” for LA28 compared to next summer’s Paris program: boxing, weightlifting, modern pentathlon, and breaking. Breaking, otherwise known as break dancing, is set to make its debut in Paris, but is “already cut for 2028.” Boxing has “feared getting the Olympic chop” since the 2016 Rio Games, with those Games “riddled by controversial judging decisions.” The IOC in 2019 suspended the International Boxing Association for its “continued failure to address other governance and financial matters.” This past June, at an Extraordinary IOC Session staged remotely, the IOC “withdrew all recognition of the IBA,” the “first time the IOC has kicked out a governing body in its 129-year history.” However, in the aftermath of that IOC session, IOC Dir General Christophe De Kepper did “give his assurances that boxing would still feature” on the sports program at LA28. How the addition of five additional sports “changes that situation is unclear” (IRISH TIMES, 10/10).

Boxing is one of four sports currently not listed for the 2028 L.A. Games compared to the program for the 2024 Paris GamesGetty Images