On Monday, Aug. 5, in an opulent reception hall adorned with gilded Parisian decoration and intricate period mirrors, journalists from around the globe convened for a press conference hosted by the International Boxing Association (IBA), which claimed it would present evidence justifying the disqualification of two female boxers last year — a decision that ultimately sparked chaos at the Paris Olympics.
Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu Ting were both disqualified by the IBA from last year’s world championship after allegedly failing unspecified “gender eligibility” tests. The two women are currently competing in the Olympics and have advanced to the medal rounds of the tournament.
In a distraction from their ongoing success, the IBA has repeatedly claimed — without proof — that the tests conducted on both women revealed they had XY chromosomes. (Women typically have XX chromosome pairs, and men typically have XY pairs, though some genetic conditions, such as Swyer syndrome, can cause a woman to be born with XY chromosomes.)
Umar Kremlev, the IBA president and a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has since doubled down on these unproven accusations, claiming that the aforementioned athletes “tried to trick their colleagues and pretend to be women.”
These allegations sparked transphobic social media posts from former President Donald Trump and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, among others, prompting Olympic officials to condemn the resulting “hate speech” directed at the boxers. The incident took a toll on the fighters, including Khelif, who called for an end to the “bullying” following her quarterfinal victory. “I am a female and will remain a female,” she added.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has also rejected the IBA’s testing as “arbitrary,” adding that the organization was leading a “disinformation campaign against the Olympic movement.”
The IBA press conference quickly descended into chaos. The event started an hour late due to a series of technical glitches, and once it finally began, little information was provided. IBA officials spoke ambiguously, refusing to present evidence for their ineligibility claims. Kremlev appeared virtually on a large screen at the front of the room, launching into an extended rant that included slanderous remarks about Thomas Bach, the president of the IOC. He repeatedly interrupted journalists and other panelists to assert his role as a protector of women’s sports.
Despite speaking for more than half an hour, Kremlev provided no details about the gender eligibility tests, the dates they were conducted or the exact results. When asked about his opinion on Khelif’s sex, Kremlev declined to give a direct response.
“I was not present when she was in the Algerian maternity. There is no proof. It may be a transgender woman, maybe not,” Kremlev said. “We didn’t verify what they have between their legs; they have doctors for that.”
The disorganized press conference failed to justify the IBA’s gender eligibility campaign but instead shone a spotlight on a chaotic organization that was once the authority in Olympic boxing. The IBA was suspended in 2019 due to corruption, match-fixing and financial scandals. Now, under Kremlev’s leadership, it has sought to return to the top table of international boxing — aided in no small part by Russian money — by making mischief at the Olympics. Imane Khelif just got caught in the crossfire.
Following the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, numerous investigations revealed extensive corruption and bribery in amateur boxing. More than a dozen boxing bouts at the 2016 Olympics, including fights for medals, were fixed through a “culture of fear, intimidation, and obedience in the ranks of the referees and judges.”
The IBA, then known as AIBA, saw its president, Wu Ching-kuo, held directly responsible for the rampant corruption. As a result, he was banned for life from the sport in 2018.
The organization’s troubles, however, did not end there. In January 2018, AIBA appointed Gafur Rakhimov as its interim president. Rakhimov was alleged to be a heroin trafficker and placed under U.S. sanctions for providing “material support” to the Thieves-in-Law, a notorious Eurasian criminal syndicate involved in global illegal activities. Additionally, he was accused of being a member of the “Brother’s Circle,” an international criminal group engaged in drug trafficking, although he has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Rakhimov’s tenure lasted until July 2019, when he resigned, coinciding with the IOC’s decision to suspend AIBA’s recognition as the governing body for boxing. This suspension stripped AIBA of its role in the Olympic Games, marking a significant blow to the organization.
The impact of these events was profound. AIBA was excluded from organizing boxing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and the upcoming 2024 Paris Games. Furthermore, boxing was omitted from the list of sports for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, underscoring the severe deterioration of amateur boxing’s standing on the international stage.
Faced with an existential crisis, the organization was forced to rebrand. It changed its name to the IBA, adopted a new constitution that gave more authority to national federations, and elected Kremlev in December 2020 with 57.33% of the vote.
Kremlev, who reportedly built a fortune running construction and private security companies in Russia, began his tenure in office by enacting a series of reforms to amateur boxing. He appointed Canadian law professor Richard McLaren — known for uncovering the state-sponsored doping scandal at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia — to conduct an independent investigation into reports of match-fixing at the 2016 Olympic Games, established new committees to oversee various aspects of the sport, and increased prize money for competitors.
“During this challenging period for our sport, the boxing community has given me tremendous trust in spearheading the revival of AIBA and ensuring AIBA’s return to the Olympic family,” Kremlev said shortly after he was elected. “I want to do my best to develop my favorite sport and our organization.”
Although Kremlev portrayed himself as the ideal candidate to reform the sport, his honeymoon period with the IOC did not last. In 2021, the IBA announced a two-year sponsorship with Russian energy firm Gazprom — a deal that provided the struggling boxing group with much-needed financial stability. However, the organization failed to disclose financial details on the size of the Gazprom deal, prompting criticism from the IOC and boxing functionaries.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the IBA’s deal with Gazprom became a major concern for the IOC. Despite Russia being banned from international sports events, including the 2022 Winter Games, and Gazprom being under Western sanctions, the IBA refused to terminate its sponsorship deal with the energy giant, citing financial dependence.
Amid mounting pressure and an attempted ouster, Kremlev was reelected as president in May 2022 after his sole opponent was controversially disqualified by an independent vetting panel. Although the opponent later won an appeal, the majority of IBA members voted against repeating the election. The IOC criticized the election process, stating that it reinforced “doubts about IBA governance.”
Kremlev’s continued defiance of the IOC’s authority — including a temporary IBA ban on Ukraine’s national boxing federation — ultimately led the IOC to permanently revoke the IBA’s Olympic credentials.
Now excluded from the Olympic movement, Kremlev has reoriented the IBA to challenge the IOC’s legitimacy and its authority over amateur boxing — a strategy that just so happens to align with the Kremlin’s efforts to establish an alternative sports arena parallel to the traditional international stage.
In July, Proekt — a Russian investigative outlet deemed undesirable by the Kremlin — published an investigation that revealed the depths of Kremlev’s relationship with the Russian state.
According to the report, the IBA president changed his surname from Lutfulloyev, a Turkic name reflecting his Tajik heritage, to the more Russian-sounding Kremlev in 2010, in an effort to distance himself from a criminal record that includes convictions for extortion and battery. In that same year, he also joined the notorious Night Wolves biker gang, an ultranationalist group with close ties to Putin.
It was through the Night Wolves that Kremlev met Alexei Rubezhnoi, the head of Putin’s security service and an influential figure in the Kremlin. Rubezhnoi lobbied for Kremlev to become the secretary general of the Russian Boxing Federation. He also helped Kremlev secure a private audience with Putin.
Kremlev did not waste his chance. He established a relationship with the Russian president, who bestowed him with the Order of Merit to the Fatherland, awarded for outstanding contributions to the state. Having established himself in Putin’s circle, Kremlev was reportedly gifted with “unlimited opportunities to make money.”
During Kremlev’s tenure with the Russian Boxing Federation, the group saw a significant increase in financial support from main sponsors such as the bookmaker company Liga Stavok and the National Lottery. According to Proekt, these entities are actually owned by Kremlev. Additionally, Rubezhnoi also engineered the nationalization of Rolf, Russia’s biggest car dealership, and then successfully lobbied the Kremlin to place the company under Kremlev’s control.
Kremlev, with the backing of his Kremlin allies, also gained control over the Russian betting market. In 2021, a decree signed by Putin appointed TsUPIS — a company gifted to Kremlev after its previous owner, the billionaire lawmaker Magomed Gadzhiyev, fled Russia for denouncing the war on Ukraine — as the sole operator of all bookmaker betting in the country. Kremlev also became the beneficiary of three of Russia’s largest betting companies: Fonbet, Pari and Liga Stavok. In return for his business success, Kremlev leveraged his position within the sporting world to further Russia’s political agenda.
Over the 24 years since his election as president of the Russian Federation, Putin has portrayed himself as the epitome of modern Russian masculinity, strategically using public relations photo ops to showcase his physical capabilities. Scenes of him swimming, weightlifting and practicing judo, complete with images of him sporting a black belt and executing hip tosses, were widely disseminated to emphasize his strength and vigor.
The Russian president also associated himself with celebrities such as action star Jean-Claude Van Damme and legendary Russian mixed martial arts fighter Fedor Emelianenko in an attempt to bolster his hard-man image. He orchestrated photo ops with D-list actor Steven Seagal, who was rewarded with Russian citizenship — a strategy that Putin later employed to reel in other notable combat sports figures such as American boxers Roy Jones Jr. and Kevin Johnson.
It is Putin’s affection for combat sports that drew him to Kremlev. The two bonded over a shared interest in boxing and an understanding of the sport’s role in upholding Russian soft power.
On Sept. 12, 2022, less than 200 days into Russia’s war in Ukraine, Kremlev joined Putin at the inauguration of the International Boxing Centre in Moscow. The seven-story facility features a training hall with a mirrored ceiling, a medical rehabilitation center, a swimming pool, a sauna, a gym and a conference hall. The two posed for pictures, including one of Putin with a championship belt draped across his shoulder, and attended a boxing event alongside 2,000 spectators.
As IBA president, Kremlev has been organizing events in developing countries that maintain friendly relations with Russia, including Cuba, India, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tajikistan and Palestine. During his visits, Kremlev meets with the presidents and national federations of these countries, promising substantial investment in their boxing programs to dissuade them from leaving the IBA for rival organizations like the U.S.-backed World Boxing.
In November 2022, for example, Kremlev met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the development of boxing in Palestine and the potential for future events in the occupied state. They also agreed on a plan to construct a boxing facility in al-Ram, a Palestinian town northeast of Jerusalem.
“I want kids of Palestine to train free of charge and develop themselves as boxers,” Kremlev said at the time. “We will invest in the construction of this academy, and the whole boxing family will be happy to proudly make it happen.”
The IBA also sponsored a selection of Palestinian boxers to compete at the men’s and women’s Youth World Boxing Championships, an event hosted by the IBA. Eight other countries also received grants to send athletes to the tournament.
This strategy of offering financial support to struggling nations became part of a more urgent sports diplomacy campaign by the Kremlin following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In the immediate aftermath of the invasion, Russia became a pariah in the sports world. Its national and club soccer teams were banned from international competitions, including the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and several international federations also banned Russian and Belarusian athletes.
However, over two years into the war, many federations have softened their stances on Russia. The IOC, for instance, allowed more than a dozen Russian athletes to compete at the Paris Olympics under stringent restrictions. Yet Russia remains largely isolated from international sports, making the IBA a significant avenue for Russian soft power.
In May, Kremlev accompanied Putin as part of the official delegation to China. The visit, which was Putin’s first foreign trip since being reelected as Russian president earlier that year, marked 75 years of foreign relations between Moscow and Beijing. The two powers discussed strengthening bilateral trade and strategic ties. Speaking with reporters during the trip, Putin praised his country’s partnership with China, saying an “emerging multipolar world … is now taking shape before our eyes.”
Kremlev, meanwhile, sat down for an interview with the state-run China Global Television Network, where he praised China and Russia’s approach to sports and the positive examples the two countries have set for the world. “Russia and China demonstrate to all countries that they need to unite,” Kremlev said. “Sports are one of the biggest tools where people unite.”
The state visit to China underscored how Kremlev operates in tandem with the Kremlin’s political aims. By working closely with countries that are already friendly toward Russia, Kremlev and the Kremlin aim to build a bloc of nations that support each other through shared economic, political and cultural initiatives. These bilateral relationships are intended to weaken the influence of Western alliances and create an alternative global framework, in which Russia plays a central role.
Through such actions, Russia is attempting to create a counterbalance to Western-dominated institutions, using sports diplomacy as a means to forge stronger ties with like-minded countries and cultivate a sense of solidarity and mutual dependence that challenges the current international order while promoting a new era of global relations based on Putin’s own terms.
Further evidence of this strategy is the World Friendship Games, an international multisport event set to be hosted in the Russian Federation in 2025. The Games, conceived by Kremlev, are inspired by the 1984 Friendship Games, which the Soviet Union organized as an alternative to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. The 1984 Games became notable due to the boycott led by the Soviet Union and its allies, in response to the American-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Given the multitude of ways that Russia employs sports as a vehicle for soft power, it is unsurprising that a Kremlin-backed Russian boxing group would orchestrate a misinformation campaign around gender eligibility testing to incite outrage against the IOC. By tapping into the ongoing culture war over gender norms, the organization running world amateur boxing has positioned itself as a self-proclaimed defender of women’s sports, and managed to create a major controversy at the center of the Olympics. Such mischief may not be good for boxing, but it attracts eyeballs to the IBA and sows uncertainty at the heart of the sport.
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