CHENNAI: The North Paris Arena is ensconced in one corner of the sprawling metropolis. In the quiet neighbourhood, cheered on by thousands, boxers were carving out their destiny inside the ring during the 2024 Olympics. On the sidelines, World Boxing (WB) president Boris van der Vorst was pacing up and down, sometimes watching games and at other times meeting people, trying to create another destiny. During a conversation with The New Indian Express then, the WB chief had said they would have at least 50 national federations associated with them by the end of the Games. Reaching that number would have meant taking a small step towards getting provisional recognition from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Boxing is yet to be part of the LA28 programme. Boris and his team had been working relentlessly since they broke away from the International Boxing Association in April 2023. Finally on Wednesday, more than six months after the Olympics, the IOC granted them provisional recognition, it was recognition of their hard work and commitment towards the sport. Boris, however, feels this is just the beginning of a journey. During a virtual interaction with The New Indian Express from Netherlands, the WB chief outlined the challenges ahead and the world body's plans to keep the sport clean and running. Excerpts:
What does the provisional recognition mean to boxing and its community as a whole?
It is a very significant step for everyone connected with the sport of Olympic boxing throughout the world. This takes boxing a step closer to being restored to the Olympic programme and keeping its place at the subsequent Olympic Games. It's absolutely critical to the future of our sport in every level from the grassroots, the high performance, the professional boxing. However, this has taken a huge team effort from a lot of people across the globe. None of this would have been possible without the hard work and commitment of all the national federations, the boxers, the coaches, officials and boxing leaders that have worked together to make this possible.
What is important to stress is that the decision by the IOC to recognise World Boxing is an important milestone. However, everyone connected with World Boxing understands that being part of the Olympic movement is a privilege and responsibility and not a right. There's still a lot of work to do. The real work is starting now and everyone at WB is committed to working together and doing everything within our power to deliver a better future for our sport. A sustainable future, a brilliant future and ensure that boxing remains at the heart of the Olympic movement.
You have been granted provisional recognition by the IOC and there are about three years left for the next Olympics. From conducting qualification tournaments, streamlining your refereeing and judging, good governance, etc, there are numerous challenges. Your thoughts...
I think before we go to challenges, it's also good to stress that the decision made by the IOC in regard to World Boxing since its launch in 2023 was that it has made very good progress. We have now 80 national federations over the five continents and have established four continental confederations. Two-thirds of the boxers and the medal winners from Paris 2024 are affiliated to these national federations that are members of World Boxing.
We have already implemented processes similar to those used by the Paris Boxing Unit at the 2024 Olympic Games, including independent third-party oversight of competitions and that's still a major concern of the IOC that we need to address. That there is fairness in our competitions, no manipulations, no fraud, that only the hand of the best boxers are raised at the World Boxing competitions and for that, we already started engaging modern technology, AI.
We have already begun several projects. We are living in 2025, and it's really important to see how we can engage modern technology in our refereeing and judging processes. But it's also important to stress that we also obtained membership of AIMS (Alliance of Independent Recognized Members of Sport) as approved by the SportAccord Executive Committee and AIMS General Assembly.
World Boxing has put into place the structure and the documentation for good governance and we demonstrated strong willingness and effort in enhancing good governance and implementation to be compliant with the appropriate standards. It's important to stress that this week, on Monday, we provided assurance with regard to the revenue generating process on the basis of multi-year commercial partnership agreement with Exceed Boxing (EB: to manage and monetize its events and commercial rights) covering the period from now (2025) until the 2028 LA period.
We have recognised CAS jurisdiction and successfully applied for WADA signatory status. We also have WADA recognition and we have a contract with the International Testing Agency (ITA). Everything is fully implemented and it's provided to all World Boxing’s anti-doping activities.
You will understand how hard we have worked the last few months to get everything in place to ensure that the IOC is confident to give us the professional recognition. But there's still a lot of work to do for boxing to be restored to the Olympic programme and ultimately, it is a decision for the IOC. What we can say is that by recognising WB, the IOC acknowledged that we have made good progress in a number of areas and that it wants to see this continue.
We need to show that we can be the organisation, the international federation, who can take care of Olympic boxing. So I think the IOC wants to see the ongoing evidence that WB is committed to operating to the highest standards of governance, is financially stable and able to deliver sporting integrity.
Your take on refereeing and judging and the use of technology, including AI, something that you touched upon even before the Paris Games...
The most important part is still the R&Js themselves. Of course, we need to have a system in place which allows no gaps for manipulation. That I think is the most important thing. At the same time, training our R&Js to have a high level of competence so that they are competent enough to officiate our competitions.
At the same time we are already exploring and engaging AI projects for reviewing and to optimise the system. It's important to stress that there are several systems already in the field to make the officiating fair and more transparent.
Almost all the officials, referees and judges are the same (as in the earlier federations).
In regards to officiating or the governance in Tokyo and Paris show that you can organise boxing competitions without manipulation. And it's with third party oversight and those elements and not creating gaps, allowing R&Js to manipulate. I think it's important that we follow these procedures and we implement them also within WB.
Where do you see boxing in the next 10 years?
I want to see boxing back at the LA Games, Brisbane and onwards. What I think is important is that ultimately, it's the IOC's decision. As I told you, by recognising WB, the IOC has recognised that we have made good progress. Our focus is on continuing to make progress and showing we can deliver a successful and sustainable sporting structure based on strong governance where fairness and sporting integrity is guaranteed.
Provisional recognition or full recognition is not a right, but a privilege. It gives a responsibility to the boxers, to the whole boxing world, also to our stakeholders. And that's something I think the real work is just starting.
