IOC Is Taking the Gloves Off

Turning up the heat on world boxing leaders to hasten reforms, the International Olympic Committee is threatening to drop the sport, possibly before the Beijing Games in 2008, according to documents and interviews.

“We are on the warpath and it’s about time things start happening,” said one senior IOC member, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of a fear of retribution.

IOC officials say the governing body has not moved quickly enough to change the way matches are scored and how judges and referees are selected.

Officials also have raised concerns about the management of the international boxing federation by Anwar Chowdhry of Pakistan, who has headed the body for two decades.

The federation, known as AIBA, is due later this year to hold a major congress at which Chowdhry’s future almost certainly will be on the agenda.

The sport, an Olympic mainstay for a century, has survived previous calls for expulsion, and its removal amid the current controversy is considered a longshot.

As one of the few sports in which medalists come from many nations, large and small, boxing maintains a broad political constituency within the Olympics. The 2004 Games in Athens, for instance, produced medal winners from such athletic backwaters as North Korea, Syria and Azerbaijan.

But IOC officials say they are fed up.

“The time has come,” said the senior IOC delegate. “... There is already a question of the status of boxing for 2008 because this [reform] has taken too long. The IOC does not understand why.”

When the IOC in July froze about $9 million due AIBA, IOC President Jacques Rogge said the money would be held until the federation provided a “clear timeline and planned actions.”

In a letter to Chowdhry dated Nov. 22, Rogge said the IOC was “concerned by the pace of the reforms” and indicated there would be a “final review” after the 2008 Games.

Chowdhry responded on Nov. 28, saying AIBA was “experimenting” with an “open” scoring system, one in which a running tally is visible in the arena. That is not the case now in Olympic fights; when there is no knockout, the first time fans in an Olympic arena learn the outcome is when the referee raises the winner’s hand.

On Dec. 20, Rogge wrote again to Chowdhry, saying the IOC was “convinced” that a “fundamental review of scoring, refereeing and judging systems employed by AIBA [should] be undertaken.”

He also indicated a “final review” would take place after 2008.

But the matter has gained urgency in recent weeks. The IOC’s executive board now appears set to address it in meetings here next week before the start of the Winter Games.

Chowdhry, in an e-mail to The Times, said the boxing federation had “no indication either official or unofficial from [the] IOC” about the sport’s status for the 2008 Olympics.

He also said AIBA was “confident” an open scoring system would be in place by the 2008 Games, and that AIBA intended to “develop software for selecting the judges for the bout without any human interference.”

Currently, senior AIBA executives select judges and referees, which has led to allegations -- unproven -- of undue influence.

In his e-mail, Chowdhry said AIBA had experimented previously with open scoring. He said a running tally was shown “about 10 years back” but “judges used to get influenced [by] the running score of the earlier rounds and discredit the boxer who [loses] in the earlier rounds.”

The plan now, he said, was to develop a system by which fans would know the running tally but judges would not. AIBA is “trying to develop scoreboards that can not be seen by the judges scoring the bout,” he wrote.

A turn to open scoring would be in line with the IOC’s recent press for accountability in so-called judged sports, sparked by scandals in figure skating at the 2002 Winter Olympics and gymnastics at Athens in 2004.

In the Dec. 20 letter, Rogge said to Chowdhry, “The IOC has the responsibility to ensure complete transparency of these decisions during the Olympic Games.”

Separately, baseball and softball officials are lobbying the IOC to reverse its decision to drop both sports from the Olympics after 2008. The matter may be put to a new vote at an all-delegates session here next week.