Weightlifting moves forward, Olympic boxing stuck

That vote, carried out last week at the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Congress in Tirana, Albania, was a critical step to repair the federation’s standing at the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In the two years since financial and governance problems were revealed, the IOC has demanded that new leadership was essential to keeping weightlifting on the summer program.

The new president is Mohammed Jaloud from Iraq, with Ursula Garza Papandrea of the U.S. selected as the first vice president. But an unexplained error in the vote counting forced a second ballot this week for the post of general secretary.

While Jose Quinones of Peru was initially declared the winner, an inspection of the voting numbers revealed the wrong result had been announced. That set up a second vote on June 30, with Anthony Urso of Italy the winner by just one vote.

Urso was an unsuccessful candidate for IWF president in 2018. The winner of that election, Tamas Ajan, was driven from office two years later when revelations of his questionable governance became public. An employee and leader of the IWF for 50 years, the Hungarian was handed a permanent ban from the sport at the IWF meeting last month.

The IOC hasn’t indicated what happens next with its scrutiny of the IWF, but for now weightlifting is still on the program for Paris 2024, but not LA28. With a new president and eager reformers like Papandrea and Urso joining the IWF board, the IOC will be watching to see if this new regime can deliver a sport without doping and a federation that operates with integrity.

The outlook is less certain for IBA, the International Boxing Association, formerly known as AIBA. The IOC has suspended the federation, but not the sport, from organizing the Olympic tournament for Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.

Integrity of sport is a primary issue. Evidence of tampering with referees and judges at Rio 2016 was the last straw for the IOC after decades of controversies over judging of Olympic boxing.

Adding to the woes of the federation was a revolving door of leadership, none able to pass the muster of the IOC.

An election held in May elected Russia’s Umar Kremlev to a full term as president, but that vote has been rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. CAS says the IBA election board acted improperly when it struck Kremlev’s only opponent from the contest. Dutch boxing leader Boris van der Vorst will now face Kremlev in a new election yet to be scheduled, but expected by early October.

Although he’s had the title of president of the boxing federation for nearly two years, the IOC does not address Kremlev with that title in its correspondence.

Last month the IOC notified IBA the IOC would handle the details of boxing in Paris, from qualifications to the tournament in 2024, as had been done with Tokyo.

In its letter to Kremlev, the IOC says whether boxing makes the program for LA28 “will be discussed at a later stage.”

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