NEWS

World Boxing, the new International Federation set-up to ensure boxing remains at the heart of the Olympic Movement, has published its Strategic Plan 2024-28.

The plan was formally approved by World Boxing’s members at its inaugural Congress and details how the organisation will: keep boxing at the heart of the Olympic movement; ensure the interests of boxers are put first; deliver sporting integrity and fair competitions; create a competition structure designed in the best interests of the boxers and operate according to strong governance standards and transparent financial management.

The plan is built around the delivery of five strategic objectives and sets out a series of action plans detailing how it will:

• Establish World Boxing as a recognised credible organisation
• Operate best practice governance
• Deliver world standard competitions
• Increase the worldwide media exposure of boxing
• Achieve financial stability and sustainability 

It contains sections on World Boxing as a business, the core business product of boxing and details the vision, mission and values of World Boxing.

Simon Toulson, Secretary General, World Boxing, said: “Since it was publicly launched in April 2023 World Boxing has achieved an enormous amount in a short time. It has established itself as a credible international sports organisation with nearly 30 member National Federations from all five Continents and staged its inaugural Congress in which it held open, transparent and fair elections that mean World Boxing now has a high-quality Executive Board with many years of boxing experience.

“The Strategy sets out a roadmap for how World Boxing will build on this and deliver on its central goals of ensuring its creates a better future for the sport and ensures boxing remains at the heart of the Olympic Movement.”

World Boxing’s Strategic Plan 2024-28 can be viewed here.

Canada’s Tammara Thibeault and Caitlin Parker from Australia have joined World Boxing’s Athlete Committee after their nominations were approved at a recent meeting of its Executive Board.

The pair, who both competed at the 2020 Olympic Games and have qualified for Paris 2024, join Athlete Representatives, Lauren Price and Richard Torrez Jr, who sit on World Boxing’s Executive Board, to form a cohort of boxers that will strengthen the athlete focus of the organisation.

The Athletes Committee is responsible for representing the views of boxers worldwide and providing advice, guidance and opinions to World Boxing.  The members of the Athletes Committee are regularly consulted on relevant matters to ensure the views of boxers are reflected in World Boxing’s decision making. They also represent the organisation publicly and are invited to attend and contribute to meetings of the Executive Board and the World Boxing Congress.

The two new additions to the Athletes Committee both compete at middleweight (75kg) and have previously boxed each other, most recently in the semi-final of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games when the Canadian edged the bout and went on to take gold. 

Tammara Thibeault is also the current 2023 Pan-American Games champion and won gold at the 2022 world championships in Istanbul.  In addition to her bronze from Birmingham, Caitlin Parker, won a silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and a bronze at the 2014 Youth Olympics. 

Tammara Thibeault said: “I am honoured to be a part of World Boxing’s future and thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute to the effort to keeping Olympic boxing in the Games. As we manage this significant shift in our sport’s leadership, it is up to athletes like us to speak for future generations. In this new chapter of amateur boxing history, I am dedicated to bringing about change through integrity and excellence.”  

Caitlin Parker added: “I am looking forward to positively contributing to the future of World Boxing, as we work together to secure boxing as part of the Olympic programme.”

Both boxers were approved as members of the Athlete Committee at the most recent meeting of the World Boxing Executive Board on 26 February 2024.

The Executive Board meeting made decisions on a wide range of measures to enable the organisation to build on the success it has achieved since it was publicly launched in April 2023. They included:

• World Boxing’s Strategic Plan 2024-2028 was formally approved.  This will be published shortly on the World Boxing website
• The approval of World Boxing’s new Competition Rules which will be published shortly on the World Boxing website
• The new certification process for Referees and Judges (R and J’s) was formally approved and will be rolled-out amongst National Federation from March 2024 onwards
• It was confirmed that the next World Boxing Cup event will be in the USA in April 2024 and that discussions are at an advanced stage with a member country to host the season finale of this competition in November or December 2024
• An update was provided on recent meetings hosted by members of the Executive Board with key sporting stakeholders in Lausanne
• A series of decisions were made in relation to key committees:
  • Boxing Scotland board member, Daryl Broadfoot, was added to the Marketing and Commercial Development Commission
  • The Sports and Competition Committee was given the go ahead to create two sub-commissions, a Technical Commission and a Coaches Commission, for which member National Federation will be asked to submit suitable candidates
  • The composition of the Continental Confederation Commission was approved by the Executive Board
  • The Medical and Anti-Doping Committee committed to hold a face-to-face meeting at the next World Boxing Cup event in the USA
  • The Finance Committee outlined the financial planning and auditing process

Boris van der Vorst, President of World Boxing said: “Ensuring the views of athletes are at the centre of decision making is core to World Boxing’s way of working and it is fantastic that we have been able to attract two such high calibre candidates as Tammara and Caitlin to join the organisation.  They have both achieved a great deal, inside and outside of the ring, and I am sure they will make a fantastic contribution to the future development of World Boxing.

“As the outputs from Executive Board meeting demonstrate World Boxing continues to make excellent progress across all aspects of its operations, including competition delivery, officiating, commercial activities and continuing to enhance the infrastructure of our organisation.  

“We have come a long way in a very short space of time and I have no doubt, that with the ongoing support of our colleagues and our members, World Boxing will continue to go from strength-to-strength as we work towards our goal of ensuring boxing remains at the heart of the Olympic Movement.” 

World Boxing was launched in April 2023 and aims to ensure that boxing remains at the heart of the Olympic movement.  It will seek recognition from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and plans to work constructively and collaboratively to develop a pathway that will preserve boxing’s ongoing place on the Olympic competition programme at Los Angeles 2028 and beyond.

27 National Federations, covering every continent that participates in Olympic-style boxing are members of World Boxing.  The first cohort was made-up of USA Boxing, New Zealand Boxing, Boxing Australia, GB Boxing, England Boxing and the Dutch Boxing Federation.  They were joined in August 2023 by the National Federations for boxing in Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Honduras and Sweden.  The next two groups to join included Denmark, Mongolia, Panama, French Polynesia, Finland, Iceland, Jamaica, Nigeria, Norway and the Czech Republic.  The most recent cohort of members in October 2023 was comprised of Philippines, Scotland, Wales, Suriname and the US Virgin Islands.