Suspicion surrounds boxing decisions at Rio Olympics

PARIS: An internal investigation by amateur boxing’s world body AIBA has raised serious questions about the judging at the 2016 Rio Olympics, with particular suspicion falling on a French official, French newspaper Le Monde reported on Monday.

France basked in the glow of six boxing medals in Rio, including golds for super heavyweight Tony Yoka and his now wife Estelle Mossely. But three days before the end of the Olympic tournament, boxing federation AIBA removed its then executive director Karim Bouzidi from his role because he was accused of favouring fighters from certain countries, according to Le Monde’s report. Le Monde, which carried out the investigation with Bulgarian newspaper Bulgaria Today, said it had seen the internal AIBA report and emails that showed the body was concerned Bouzidi had influenced the decisions of so-called five-star judges in Olympic bouts. An email from AIBA’s then-president Wu Ching-Ko dated November 18, 2016 said the body suspected Bouzidi of acting with another senior official to influence the judges, in particular those featuring boxers from France and Uzbekistan. Bouzidi did not reply to AFP’s request for a comment on Monday. Andre Martin, the head of the French boxing federation, told Le Monde: “The results in Rio were not ‘stolen’, they are honest.

It’s true that we knew Bouzidi but we never blackmailed him.” AIBA’s internal investigation found that Bouzidi had the power to appoint the referees and officials for competitions, but added there was no direct proof that these changes influenced the results of fights. Bouzidi’s arrival in the senior AIBA ranks coincided with a campaign by France to try to improve its Olympic boxing results after disappointing performances at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Games.