World Boxing follows IOC approach, permits Russian and Belarusian boxers to take part as neutral athletes
Boxers from Russia and Belarus will be allowed to compete as neutral athletes by World Boxing, the new governing body recently put in charge of Olympic boxing competitions.
World Boxing announced on Tuesday that it would treat Russian and Belarusian boxers as neutral athletes, following the approach generally taken by the International Olympic Committe since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Fighters and support personnel from Russia and Belarus will not be allowed to take part in World Boxing events with flags, uniforms or national anthems. They must also be cleared through a vetting process to ensure they have not supported the war in Ukraine or have links to the Russian military.
World Boxing was formed in 2023 as an alternative to the International Boxing Association, which was permanently banned from the Olympic movement that year. The IOC had lost patience with the IBA after years of governance issues and financial misconduct, compounded by the organisation’s ties to Russia following the election of Umar Kremlev as president in 2020.
The IBA largely ignored restrictions on Russian and Belarusian athletes across sport in recent years, allowing them to compete with national flags and symbols from 2023.
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World Boxing was given provisional recognition by the IOC in February 2025. The IOC had run the Olympic boxing tournaments in Tokyo and Paris after the IBA was excluded.
A month later, boxing was formally confirmed as part of the programme for the Los Angeles Olympics after months of uncertainty over the sport’s governance.
World Boxing has gradually expanded its membership to include federations from almost every nation. It also added federations from Russia and Belarus last month. Ukraine’s federation joined the organisation last year.
Gennadiy Golovkin, the former middleweight world champion who won an Olympic silver medal for Kazakhstan in 2004, was elected World Boxing president last year.
Published on Apr 29, 2026