Following the governing body vote, Umar Kremlev remains President of the International Boxing Association

LOS ANGELES — Umar Kremlev will remain president of the International Boxing Association after the amateur sport’s governing body voted against holding new general elections on Sunday, a decision that seriously casts doubt on boxing’s Olympic future.

The International Olympic Committee issued a statement saying it was “extremely concerned” about boxing’s Olympic future after an Extraordinary IBA Congress overwhelmingly supported Kremlev during its meeting in Yerevan, Armenia.

The Russian was re-elected in May after an opponent, Boris van der Vorst of the Netherlands, was prevented from running against him. The Sport Arbitration Court ruled in June that van der Vorst should have been allowed to run against Kremlev, but the IBA group still decided not to hold new elections.

The decision goes against the will of the IOC, which suspended the IBA (then known as AIBA) in 2019 after years of financial mismanagement and poor organisation. The IOC hosted the boxing tournament itself at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and plans to host a boxing tournament at the Paris Games in 2024, excluding the IBA.

Boxing is not currently on the Los Angeles Olympics schedule in 2028 and the IOC’s statement was the latest in months with suggestions the decision could be permanent. Boxing was an ancient Olympic sport, first introduced into the modern Games in 1904, and has been included in every Olympic program since 1920.

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The Kremlin has not adopted a conciliatory tone towards the IOC’s demands. In fact, he urged the IBA to become less Olympic-focused in its statements after Decision Sunday.

“I work for you, not for a subsidiary organization,” Kremlev said through an interpreter. “Nobody else should have any influence on the organization.”

The IOC criticized the IBA’s leadership under Kremlev, who was elected in December 2020. Kremlev addressed the IBA’s debts from years of patchy financial deals under former President Wu Ching-Kuo by signing a major sponsorship deal with Russian energy giant Gazprom.

Van der Vorst was the preferred candidate of a group of mostly Western nations hoping to change the direction of the governing body, in line with the IOC’s wishes, to improve his chances of remaining in the Olympic programme. USA Boxing and several other governing bodies expressed disappointment with the IBA this weekend after it refused to change course.

The IBA also suspended the Boxing Federation of Ukraine on Friday, barring it from voting in the Extraordinary Congress. Kremlev met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier this month at the opening of a boxing center.

The IBA cited “government interference” as the reason for suspending the Ukrainian body a day after writing to IBA members asking them to vote out the Kremlin. The organization claimed it will continue to support Ukrainian boxers’ participation in IBA events.