Boxing bouts fixed at 2016 Olympics, investigation finds

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Boxing bouts for medals astatine the 2016 Olympics were fixed by “complicit and compliant” referees and judges, an probe reported connected Thursday.

Investigator Richard McLaren was appointed by the International Boxing Association, known arsenic AIBA, and recovered AIBA officials selected referees and judges to guarantee that bouts could beryllium manipulated successful Olympic qualifying and astatine the Rio de Janeiro Games.

“Key unit decided that the rules did not use to them,” said McLaren, who added determination was a “culture of fear, intimidation and obedience successful the ranks of the referees and judges.”

There isn’t a last fig connected however galore fights could person been affected. The probe identified “in the vicinity of 11, possibly less, and that’s counting the ones that we cognize were manipulated, occupation bouts oregon suspicious bouts,” including fights for medals, McLaren said.

Senior AIBA officials utilized their powerfulness to prime referees and judges and turned the committee which was expected to guarantee they were assigned reasonably into “a specified rubber stamp”, McLaren said.

“This informal operation allowed complicit and compliant referees and judges … to beryllium assigned to circumstantial bouts to guarantee the manipulation of outcomes,” helium said. The referees and judges who were selected mostly “knew what was going on” oregon other were “incompetent” and consenting to disregard signs of manipulation, and qualifying events for the Olympics were utilized to filter retired honorable referees and judges, McLaren alleged.

Referees and judges were told who should triumph a bout successful the greeting earlier a time of fights astatine the Olympics, including successful a lounge country “protected from prying eyes,” McLaren said. He wasn’t capable to place who was yet liable for moving the match-fixing strategy and selecting winners.

During the 2016 Olympics, determination was a spotlight connected judging aft a contentious combat betwixt Ireland’s Michael Conlan and Russian Vladimir Nikitin. After the judges awarded the combat to Nikitin, Conlan showed them his mediate fingers and accused Russia and AIBA of corruption. McLaren’s study didn’t connection a verdict connected whether the effect of that combat was fixed.

McLaren’s study includes witnesser grounds of discussions astatine the 2016 Olympics implicit a bribe of up to $250,000 for a Mongolian boxer to bushed a combatant from France successful a semifinal bout. The witnesser alleged a antheral from Kazakhstan moving arsenic a referee and justice asked for the wealth successful speech for fixing the combat successful Mongolia’s favor. No bribe was paid and the Mongolian boxer mislaid with “very antithetic scoring” which was identical connected each 5 judges’ scorecards, the study states.

AIBA has been led by Russian businessman Umar Kremlev since December and says it has reformed however bouts are judged since 2016, erstwhile ex-president C.K. Wu was successful charge.

“AIBA hired Professor McLaren due to the fact that we person thing to hide,” Kremlev said successful a statement. “We volition enactment to incorporated immoderate adjuvant recommendations that are made. We volition besides instrumentality ineligible proposal with respect to what enactment is imaginable against those recovered to person participated successful immoderate manipulation. There should beryllium nary spot successful the AIBA household for anyone who has fixed a fight.”

None of the referees oregon judges from 2016 were successful their posts for this year’s Olympics successful Tokyo aft being suspended by AIBA. This year’s Olympic tournaments were organized not by AIBA but straight by the International Olympic Committee, which remains unhappy with however AIBA is run.

The IOC said this period it has “deepest concerns” astir AIBA and that it received complaints astir refereeing and judging astatine 2 large AIBA events this year, the Asian championships and satellite younker championships.

The IOC has truthful acold refused to corroborate boxing volition enactment connected the Olympic programme astatine the 2024 Games successful Paris.

McLaren’s probe volition present broaden to analyse whether determination was corruption successful AIBA management.