“A special decision to destroy an organization capable of making the championship more interesting than the Olympic Games” – Saitov on the IOC’s decision on the IBA

The decisions of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) associated with the International Boxing Association (IBA) aim to destroy an organization capable of making the championship more interesting than the Olympic Games, believes Oleg Saitov, double Olympic boxing champion. .

IBA recognition was suspended in June 2019 by an IOC session decision. In June this year, the IOC Executive Board recommended to the organization’s session to withdraw recognition from the IBA, as the association did not meet the necessary conditions for restoration proposed by the IOC in December 2021. The IOC Executive Board also recommended that the session “in the interest of athletes and sport” keep boxing on the program of the 2024 Olympics in Paris. To make a decision, an extraordinary session of the IOC has been convened, which will be held on June 22.

In mid-June, the IBA appealed to the CAS against this decision and asked the court to suspend the IOC’s recommendations pending a final verdict from the court. On Tuesday, the CAS rejected the IBA’s request to suspend the IOC’s recommendations.

“It is a political decision. The IOC specifically adopted it not for the development of boxing, but to destroy an organization capable of making the championship more interesting than the Olympic Games. It is certain that the athletes will suffer, because in the new organization there will most likely be the same people who will be attracted by prohibitions, restrictions and threats.But in the new organization other people will make decisions that are not able to work like the says the IBA There have never been and there will never be people capable of developing boxing to such a level.

Is it difficult for the IBA to find a positive way out of this situation now?

“I don’t know, let’s hope for a miracle, it’s happening in Russia,” Saitov told .