International Boxing Association president Umar Kremlev has claimed that the International Olympic Committee's new leadership has adopted the boxing body's recommendations on gender equality.
The Russian sports official told the outlet Sovetsky Sport that the IBA had ultimately been proven right on the issue, praising the current Olympic administration for its approach following years of institutional conflict.
Kremlev blamed the previous breakdown in relations between the two sports organisations on the stupidity of the former IOC leadership. He said the new administration was fixing the problems its predecessors had created, characterising the new IOC leadership as having a very positive attitude toward the boxing association.
The boxing chief also stated that the IBA stood for global peace and believed that world conflicts should be restricted exclusively to sporting arenas.
Olympic testing policy
Kremlev's remarks follow the IOC's recent decision to introduce gender testing for female athletes at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The Olympic committee had not previously implemented such testing practices at the Games.
The Olympic movement experienced a major executive transition in the summer of 2025 when Kirsty Coventry succeeded Thomas Bach as president of the IOC. Coventry, a former Olympic champion swimmer from Zimbabwe, became the first woman to lead the organisation and took charge following a turbulent period in Olympic boxing.
Under Bach, the IOC and the IBA clashed repeatedly. The dispute culminated in 2024, when the Olympic committee formally stripped the IBA of its recognition as the global governing body for amateur boxing.
World Championship suspension
The withdrawal of recognition followed a long running dispute over the boxing body's governance, its finances, and historical concerns regarding refereeing and judging integrity. The IOC subsequently took direct control of organising the boxing tournaments at recent Olympic Games.
The issue of gender eligibility became a major public flashpoint between the two organisations following the IBA's World Boxing Championships in 2023.
During that tournament, the IBA suspended the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif based on the results of a gender test. However, because the IOC no longer recognised the IBA's authority or its testing protocols, it applied its own eligibility criteria for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Khelif was permitted to compete under the IOC guidelines in Paris, where she won a gold medal. Her participation sparked a global debate over gender rules in sport and drew intense scrutiny to the differing policies of the two sports organisations.
