The organization responsible for governing boxing at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games has released details on how Russian and Belarusian athletes can compete at the tournament.
In a recent statement released to the media World Boxing confirms that an “AIN Procedure — ’Athlètes Individuels Neutres’ (Individual Neutral Athletes)” will be the task that boxers from Russia and Belarus will need to go through to compete at host of international tournaments, which include the Olympic Games.
The statement from World Boxing said: “The AIN procedure has been introduced with immediate effect following the decision of World Boxing’s Executive Board and the Secretary General has written to the Belarusian Boxing Federation and the Russian Boxing Federation to provide them with details of the procedure and how it will be implemented.”
It follows the decision at the last Olympic Games that did not allow fighters from Russian or Belarus to fight under their nations flag, largely due to the ongoing war in Ukraine due to the Russian invasion over five years ago. Russian and Belarusian athletes were still able to compete, but under the same AIN program.
In theory, the same rules apply to the 2028 Olympic Games in LA that were in place at Paris 2024.
In a long list of criteria published, the most eye catching point was; “World Boxing will work with an expert, independent third party to conduct a series of checks on all athletes from Russia and Belarus that are entered into its competitions to ensure they do not have a history of supporting the war in Ukraine, are not paid by the military or security forces, are not members of clubs linked to the army or police force and have not participated in any events organised by The International Military Sports Council (CISM) since the start of the war in Ukraine.”
Under the sub header “Flags” World Boxing laid out five rules to be upheld:
- There will be no use of the country or National Federation flag during the competition
- If a boxer from an AIN country wins a gold medal, the national anthem will not be played
- If a boxer from an AIN country wins a medal, the AIN logo will be used on a flag in the medal ceremony
- The boxers will be represented on television graphics and all competition information as AIN
- This will be applied at all age category events directly organised by World Boxing or European Boxing
World Boxing will take charge of its first Olympic Games following the removal of the previous governing body, the IBA (formerly AIBA).