(Reuters) -World Boxing President Boris van der Vorst will not seek re-election at the body’s third annual Congress in November, citing the relentless demands of leading the breakaway organisation and years of global travel as his reasons for stepping down.
The former Dutch federation head was elected World Boxing’s first president on a two-year term after the breakaway body was formed in 2023, tasked with the crucial mission of securing boxing’s Olympic future beyond the 2024 Paris Games.
During his tenure, he oversaw World Boxing’s expansion to over 120 national federations while also securing provisional recognition from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), leading to boxing’s reinstatement at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
“My time as president has been fulfilling and inspiring, but it has also been relentless,” Van der Vorst wrote in a letter to the presidents of all of World Boxing’s member national federations on Thursday.
“After years of global travel and the daily demands of building World Boxing from the ground up to meet the requirements of the IOC and other stakeholders, I have concluded that I will not commit to another term as president.
“World Boxing is firmly established and recognised, and it is time for new leadership to guide the organisation towards Dakar 2026 (Youth Olympics) and Los Angeles 2028.”
Although World Boxing has supplanted the International Boxing Association (IBA) as the sport’s global body after the Russian-led IBA was stripped of recognition by the IOC, it has not been without controversy.
World Boxing introduced mandatory sex testing for all boxers in its competitions in May in an announcement that targeted Paris Olympics gold medallist Imane Khelif, saying the Algerian would not be allowed to compete without undergoing the test.
Days later, Van der Vorst apologised for specifically naming Khelif in their announcement.
In a letter to the Algerian Boxing Federation president Abdelkader Abbas, Van der Vorst said World Boxing should have made a greater effort to protect Khelif’s privacy.
Khelif has since appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against World Boxing’s decision barring her from upcoming events.
French female boxers were also barred from competing at the inaugural World Boxing Championships in Liverpool earlier this month after failing to meet a deadline for the genetic sex test.
The French Boxing Federation (FFBoxe) said French law prohibits the federation from conducting the tests domestically or abroad without a medical prescription.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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