The entire sport of boxing could be banned from the Olympics for doping violations. The AIBA, which governs the sport for amateurs, failed to carry out a single out-of-competition drugs test in 2015.
This is in clear violation of the WADA's code, and there is a danger that the AIBA will be declared non-compliant and the sport will be banned from the upcoming Olympics.
A secret report from WADA revealed that there was only one out-of-competition test taken between January 2014 and December 2015, which is considerably short of the requirements.
WADA has confirmed that the AIBA isn't the only federation it's working with to bring the sport up to code, but it refused to mention other governing bodies.
While the AIBA are close to an Olympics ban, a statement from a WADA spokeswomen said they have a chance to prevent that from happening:
The focus of the Partnership to Quality Program is to identify areas of improvement and to support the IF in addressing them. This is a dynamic process, which includes a two-day visit as a starting point, but also involves regular follow-up contacts to ensure that the recommendations made by the Wada team are put into practice by the IF.
If Wada considers that there is no or too little follow-up from an IF – or any ADO – in terms of implementation and/or insufficient practice of the 2015 code, it can refer the case for review at any time to its independent compliance review committee, which can in turn make recommendations to Wada’s foundation board regarding compliance. This is not the case with AIBA to date.
The AIBA has moved to underline it's commitment to anti-doping, and stressed that there has been a significant shift to test boxers out of competition who are "not already under the regime of their national federation or national anti-doping organisation".
Naturally, if boxing were to be prevented from competing in the Olympics in Rio - then Ireland's medal hopes would drastically deteriorate. Four of Ireland's five medals at the 2012 Olympics were in boxing.
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Picture credit: Ray McManus / SPORTSFILE
