The presidential election to help lead the boxing association, with its remaining to be recognized by the Olympic movement, will be having two candidates now. An urgent ruling was sent out by the Court of Arbitration for Sports Tuesday in which Serik Konakbayev of Kazakhstan was cleared for valid nominations to stand for the designation of the president of AIBA.
While Konakbayev is a renowned Olympic silver medalist, Gafur Rakhimov, the AIBA interim president is described as one of the leading criminals in Uzbekistan by the U.S. Treasury Department. The assets owned by Rakhimov in American jurisdiction had been frozen by the Treasury Department to provide material support to the ‘Thieves-In-Law’ criminal organization. On the other hand, Rakhimo has denied any wrongdoing.
The International Olympic Committee has issued a warning to AIBA that it poses a risk of being barred from the Tokyo Olympics of 2020 if Rakhimov goes on to win the election. However, there is no need to worry as the sport of boxing is not at risk of getting dropped from the Olympic program. Besides, the IOC further did not allow Rakhimov to attend the Youth Olympics held in Buenos Aires in October this year.
Moreover, the British authorities had also stopped Rakhimov’s accreditation request for the London Olympics of 2012. Rakhimov was also not allowed to attend the Sydney Olympics in 2000 when Australian government refused him a visa although he was accredited for the games.
But still, Rakhimov continued to make an influence in the Olympic circles. He was appointed as Olympic Council of Asia’s vice president. He was also lobbied on behalf of the successful bid of Sochi to host the Winter Games of 2014. Just before the presidential vote is carried out, the members of AIBA will be asked to approve a few changes on Friday to the status proposed under the interim leadership of Rakhimov.
