World Boxing, the International Federation established to ensure boxing remains at the heart of the Olympic Movement, now has 51 members after it approved seven new applications from the National Federations for boxing in Andorra, Belgium, Iraq, Lithuania, Madagascar, Kyrgyzstan and Thailand.
All of the applications have been approved by World Boxing’s Executive Board and significantly enhance its global footprint. Madagascar is the third African nation to join after Nigeria and Algeria. Iraq is the second Arabic country to become a member.
The addition of the Thailand Boxing Association, whose President Mr. Pichai Chunhavajira has been the President of the Asian Boxing Confederation since March 2022, boosts World Boxing’s influence in the region, where it now has 11 members including India, Japan, Bhutan, Chinese Taipei, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines and Singapore.
The announcement of the seven new members comes in the same week that World Boxing is staging its first global championships, the U19 World Boxing Championships, at the Pueblo Convention Centre in Colorado USA, 26 October – 2 November 2024.
The Championships will be followed on Sunday 3 November 2024 by World Boxing’s second annual Congress.
All seven of the new National Federations have completed a rigorous application process to join World Boxing. They are deemed to be in good standing and, through their statutes and operating processes, able to demonstrate:
- A transparent and open election process for the appointment of office bearing roles
- The existence and operation of WADA-recognised anti-doping polices and processes
- Evidence of a structured, dispute resolution and appeals process that is either fully independent or subject to external input
- Formal recognition by either their National Olympic Committee (NOC) or Ministry for Sport
- A solid national and international boxing sports programme
The President of World Boxing, Boris van der Vorst, said: “To have surpassed the milestone of 50 members is hugely significant for World Boxing and conclusive proof of both the desire for change that exists in international boxing and the widespread acknowledgement by so many National Federations that boxing has to continue to be part of the Olympic Games.
“I would like to thank all of my colleagues and the other boxing leaders across the world that have worked together with us to reach this significant point in the evolution of World Boxing and I look forward to working with other National Federations as we continue to grow our membership further.
“The momentum is building and I look forward to announcing more members in the near future as we are continuing to process applications from more and more countries who recognise that joining World Boxing and is the only way of ensuring that their boxers will be able to pursue their dreams of competing on the biggest stage in sport at the Olympic Games.”
World Boxing was launched in April 2023. On 7 May 2024, it held the first formal meeting with the IOC which signalled the start of formal collaboration aimed at establishing a pathway for boxing to remain in the Olympic Games.
On 26 September 2024, World Boxing announced that it had set-up an Olympic Commission, chaired by President of the National Olympic Committee of Kazakhstan, to support and assist the process of developing a pathway to ensuring that boxing is restored to the Olympic Games.