In early October, all domestic sports celebrated a big victory: the International Boxing Association (IBA) sensationally allowed the Russians to compete under its auspices. Step by our times is really incredible! Young athletes should have taken advantage of this chance at the end of November, having arrived at the World Junior Championships in La Nucia.

However, as it turned out, the Russians will not go to Spain. The leadership of our federation simply refused to participate in the long-awaited tournament.

Expected Solution

Among the international sports federations, most of which actively follow the anti-Russian policy, the International Sambo and Boxing Federations stand apart. In many ways, this is due to the personalities of the leaders of these organizations: both are directly related to Russia.

Vasily Shestakov leads the world sambo, and Umar Kremlev has been the head of the boxing organization since December 2020. The former Secretary General of our boxing federation had a difficult time to establish himself in an international position, but so far his work has met all expectations. The fact that Umar was re-elected to his post in May 2022, when the Russophobic campaign in the world of sports was already underway, speaks volumes.

Umar Kremlev / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Vladimir Trefilov

And despite all the problems, our functionary is still solving an important task – to return the Russians to the world stage, thereby making international sports more competitive. On October 5, it became known that the IBA allowed the Russians to the Youth World Championship, which will be held from November 14 to 26 in Spain:

“The IBA strongly believes that politics should not have any impact on the sport. All athletes must be given equal conditions. While respecting its autonomy as an international sports federation, the IBA must remain politically neutral and independent, the federation said in a statement.

Since our boxers have already missed the Women’s World Championship and the Men’s European Championship, this manifesto was just an incredible breakthrough. Naturally, in Russia they confirmed their intention to go to La Nucia:

– In a month we plan to go to the world championship for athletes aged 17-18 in Spain. And we believe that we will please you with good results,” Tatyana Kiriyenko, General Secretary of the Russian Boxing Federation, said on October 8.

Fail again

True, immediately after the decision of the IBA, some experts noted with concern that our boxers might not get to Spain. Many factors are to blame for this: the difficult situation inside Russia, difficulties with logistics and even pressure from the IOC.

Obviously, with his decision, the Kremlin opposed world boxing to the Olympic movement, since he did not follow the advice of Thomas Bach. By the way, the presence of boxing in the program of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles is now also in question, and such courage of the International Federation may come back to haunt its athletes.

Photo: © Zhao Hanrong / Xinhua / Global Look Press

On October 23, two weeks after the confirmation of the participation of our boxers in the World Championship, the International Boxing Federation announced that the Russians would not come:

– The IBA has received official letters from the Russian and Belarus boxing federations stating that boxers from both countries, despite the possibility of participating in all IBA competitions, will not take part in the 2022 Youth World Boxing Championships for men and women in La Nucia, Spain . The reason for the decision is the time and logistical constraints associated with the training of athletes, the federation said in a press release.

Dangerous precedent

It is difficult to say what was the main problem for our boxers and why two weeks ago the leadership of the organization did not foresee such problems. But, apparently, we are really talking about insurmountable logistical difficulties and visa problems.

And this is a very revealing moment. Against the backdrop of our worries about not allowing Russian athletes to compete in other sports, few people think about how we will take part in them if restrictions are lifted. It is obvious that the skiers and biathletes, whose ban hit Russian fans so hard, would have faced similar problems. In addition, Bolshunov and Nepryaeva would have an order of magnitude more travel within the European Union than a team of boxers who had to make one trip to Spain.

So the issue of participation of our athletes in international tournaments has several planes. And even overcoming formal restrictions still does not guarantee anything.