28 Nov 2019 Newsflash: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that it has stopped planning for the boxing tournament at Tokyo 2020 and launched an investigation into its governing body the International Boxing Association (AIBA) – via Reuters
20 Nov 2019 – The International Olympic Council (IOC) Boxing Task Force has complemented existing International Boxing Association (AIBA) regulations with specific amendments to deliver its commitment to transparency while minimising the impact on boxers at the upcoming Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
The IOC Boxing Task Force has confirmed that the judges’ scores of all rounds will now be displayed at the end of each round. All officials will be selected from the IOC Boxing Task Force pool of eligible officials, which will consist of qualified AIBA-certified individuals who have been reviewed to ensure they meet the selection criteria. The IOC Boxing Task Force will then randomly select every official for each competition from the pool of eligible individuals.
The full referee and judge selection process will be conducted under the independent supervision of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and include extensive independent background checks of each individual. No referees or judges involved in the Olympic Games Rio 2016 will be eligible to participate in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic boxing qualifiers or Olympic competition.
Download a summary version of the Boxing Technical Officials Selection Process here.
Mr Morinari Watanabe, IOC Boxing Task Force CHAIRMAN said:
“The main objective of the IOC Boxing Task Force is to ensure the completion of the mission of delivering events, while putting the boxers first, and with transparent and credible sporting results and fair play.”
“It is only fair to the boxers not to change the fundamental competition rules so close to the Olympic qualifiers and the Olympic competition in Tokyo. The IOC Boxing Task Force has therefore focused on the full review of the rules enforced by AIBA in the current year of 2019, limiting changes which impact on boxers while increasing transparency by displaying the scoring and in the selection process for referees and judges.”
Boxing Athlete Ambassador Shelley Watts (AUS), a 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist and Rio 2016 Olympian, said:
“The IOC Boxing Task Force amendments to the AIBA Rules will have a positive impact on the conduct of Olympic Boxing Qualifying Events and at Tokyo 2020, as they focus on key areas such as clarity, transparency and integrity. These amendments are the result of an inclusive decisional process that took into consideration the athletes’ voice: we made sure that changes will not impact the dynamics of the current practice of the sport, while improving the standard of the competitions.”
The AIBA Rules, effective as of 9 February 2019, and following the IOC Boxing Task Force Amendments, shall constitute the Tokyo 2020 IOC Boxing Task Force Event Regulations, applicable at the Olympic Boxing Qualifying Events and the boxing tournament at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
About the IOC
The International Olympic Committee is a not-for-profit independent international organisation made up of volunteers, which is committed to building a better world through sport. It redistributes more than 90 per cent of its income to the wider sporting movement, which means that every day the equivalent of 3.4 million US dollars goes to help athletes and sports organisations at all levels around the world.
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