Olympic boxing has been at a crossroads for some time, and despite the support of Thomas Bach and the entire structure of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for Boris Van der Vorst, there seems to be no way out.

The conflict between the IOC and the IBAhas been going on for a long time and continues to open up new chapters between its leading figures, the Russian Umar Kremlev and the German Thomas Bach. Their views are as contradictory as their approaches, with the future of Olympic boxing caught in the middle and at risk.

The International Boxing Association (IBA) has historically organised boxing in the Olympic world. It is the world governing body of boxing, founded in 1946, but for some years now it has not been recognised by the IOC in Olympic matters, despite changes made at the request of Thomas Bach himself.

Boris Van der Vorst was the man chosen by Bach to lead the IBA's actions and its relationship with the IOC, but his constant electoral failures prevented him from leading the IBA, let alone representing the boxers.

Van der Vorst has lost every election he has taken part in, from the 2020 IBA Presidential Election to the 2022 EUBC Board Election and others such as the 2022 EUBC Presidential Election.

Unsatisfied with democratic elections and, with the support of Bach and other officials, the Dutchman continued his attempt to dominate amateur boxing worldwide.

What he could not achieve through the ballot box, he sought outside it. Strange as it may seem, he attempted to do this outside the founding statutes of the IBA, of which he had been a member for many years, by creating a new world boxing organisation, World Boxing (WB).

However, that was not enough; the national federations also needed to be represented, and they were elected by their own interest groups. Herein lies van der Vorst's main failure: He cannot win the support of the federations, despite the enormous pressure they are under from the IOC.

One of the most controversial aspects surrounding van der Vorst is his ties to Putin and the Russian Federation, with whom he has a long-standing relationship, even sharing a photo of the Russian leader hugging him at the 2019 EUBC European Men's Elite Championships in Minsk.

Putin and Russia in general are not favoured by Bach and his colleagues, this one of the reasons why IOC sets so many obstacles to the IBA led by Umar Kremlev, although this has not been an obstacle to the IOC's support for the new organisation.

Bach's idea is clear: to break up the IBA and create a new organisation that is more in line with the views of the IOC, which, among other things, does not like the IBA's distribution of prize money and its direct financial returns to participating boxers and coaches.

The IOC did everything it could for WB to gain membership, knowing that it lacked the support of both national and regional federations. It even lost in Europe, its own backyard.

The IOC, through the National Olympic Committees, put a lot of pressure on the national federations in the run-up to Paris 2024.

The IOC went so far as to issue a statement saying that IBA boxers would not be allowed to compete in LA 2028, almost forcing them to switch to the new WB under Van der Vorst.

In Paris, the IOC gave Van der Vorst the opportunity to build relationships with national federations, providing him with boxes and special accreditations. The stage was set, but the Dutchman did not take advantage of it.

Despite the IOC's efforts to overshadow the IBA and encourage a migration to a new international boxing federation, the WB has failed to gain the necessary supporters to be seen as representative of the national federations and boxers of each country.

It has only 42 members, far too few to represent the interests of the boxing world. Of these, only 13 are not IBA members, despite pressure from the IOC, and two of these are not even recognised federations in their countries and GB Boxing. None of these 13 members have won any medals at Paris 2024 unless GB boxing with 2 bronze medals. Meanwhile, here you can find the current members of IBA. 

In conclusion, the IOC is disappointed with van der Vorst, who has failed to win over the majority of national federations despite being given an unprecedented advantage.

"For governance reasons, the IOC is not in a position to organise another Olympic boxing tournament. To keep boxing on the Olympic programme, the IOC needs a recognised and reliable international federation as a partner, as is the case with other Olympic sports," read the IOC statement, which was expected to encourage federations to return to the WB, but failed.

"At present, boxing is not included in the sports programme for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. To remedy this, the IOC needs to have an associated international federation for boxing by early 2025," read another part of the same statement, putting pressure on the national federations who have largely turned their backs on the proposals to switch to van der Vorst and remain with Kremlev as head for now.

Van der Vorst's failure is complete. Just like with his own Dutch federation, which has a history of poor boxing results, he has not achieved the expected results and his time is running out. The federations are turning their backs on him.

Similarly, parallel federations have been set up in French Polynesia, Peru and Ecuador, federations that ultimately do not represent their boxers.

The IOC has no plan B, having bet everything on van der Vorst simply because he is an opponent (and having lost the IBA elections to Kremlev), but it has failed because they cannot get the boxers to join their federation.

An example that partly illustrates the situation of the WB is the weight categories for boxers. The WB has fewer weight categories than the IBA. For women it has only 10 compared to IBA's 12, while for men it has 10 compared to 13, indicating that it has fewer competitors available.

The WB is not attractive to boxers nor to national federations, it does not offer prizes, it has no significant fights or major championships like the IBA. It does not even have its own organised competitions, only co-organised tournaments that have existed for years, such as the Cologne Boxing Cup 2023.

The only thing it could offer is the organisation of Olympic boxing, but that will not happen with such a small representation, and the IOC knows it.

Van der Vorst also knows this, although he is still holding out hope that he will be able to win over supporters who are systematically rejecting him, both in the elections and, at least for the time being, in the attempt to switch to WB, despite the constant pressure from the IOC.

The future of Olympic boxing is in jeopardy and everyone knows it. The efforts and whims of the IOC to have Van der Vorst manage world boxing will not last forever in the face of such poor results.

If the Dutchman does not get representation and the IOC does not organise boxing at LA28, as it has repeatedly stated,there will be no choice but to sit down with Kremlev and the IBA or lose from the Olympic programme a historic sport like boxing, which was first included in the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Games.