World Boxing added China and five more federations to its growing list of members on Wednesday, reaching another major goal in its quest to keep boxing in the Olympics.
China, Turkey, Sudan, Greece, Slovakia and Montenegro are the most recent members of World Boxing that now has 84 national federations among its membership. The new governing body had only 37 at the conclusion of the Paris Olympics in August 2024.
The Chinese Boxing Federation's decision to join is yet another positive sign for World Boxing, which received provisional recognition from the International Olympic Committee in February as the new governing body for the sport ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
World Boxing was founded in April 2023 to preserve the sport's Olympic future after the International Boxing Association (IBA) was suspended in 2019 and banished from the Olympic movement in 2023 following years of judging scandals, questionable leadership decisions and lack of financial transparency.
While World Boxing swiftly signed up most of the top Western federations fed up with the Russia-dominated IBA's intransigence, the breakaway body knew it would face difficulty in landing top federations who either rely financially on the banned body or align politically with its Russian leadership.
"The addition of six more members to our ever-increasing membership is further evidence of the widespread support that exists across our sport for the work that World Boxing is doing to deliver a better future for boxers and ensure that boxing remains at the heart of the Olympic movement," World Boxing president Boris Van Der Vorst said.
China has emerged as a top boxing nation since the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Its team finished second in the medal table in Paris last year with three gold medals and two silvers, behind Uzbekistan - which is also among World Boxing's 25 Asian members - that won five golds. Turkey also has a thriving federation, winning two silver medals and a bronze in Paris.
Boxing still is not officially on the programme for the Los Angeles Games, but the boxing superstar and president of the National Olympic Committee of Kazakhstan Gennadiy Golovkin is heading a World Boxing commission to cement the body's future in the Olympic movement. The IOC ran the last two Olympic boxing tournaments but has repeatedly said a new governing body must be in charge of future tournaments if boxing stays on the programme.
