The International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board has amended its charter where they have made a rather simpler process to chuck out disciplines from the Games and there are reports that the first few targets could well be weightlifting and possibly boxing.
Now, the governing bodies will make these decisions on the drawing board, but it will be the athletes who will turn out to be the real losers. And for India, it will be a huge setback as there are so many hopes attached with both weightlifting and boxing. In Tokyo Olympics 2020, Mirabai won silver in weightlifting, while Lovlina Borgohain clinched bronze in boxing. India had several prospects that came extremely close to a podium finish in both these disciplines.
According to a recent amendment to the Olympic Charter the full IOC membership can remove a sport whenever the governing body does not act in accordance with the decisions approved by the IOC executive board or if it “acts in a manner likely to tarnish the reputation of the Olympic movement”.
Weightlifting seems to be skating on thin ice and it runs the risk of being expunged from the Paris Olympics owing to long-term doping cases and governance issues that include financial corruption. The mantle of International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) was in the hands of former IOC member Tamás Aján.
Apart from this, the IOC will also be looking at boxing’s performance at the Tokyo Olympics as well as all the ongoing reforms under the realm of AIBA and under its president Umar Kremlev before they take a decision on whether or not they want to reinstate its official recognition.
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