Published in March 2019, a survey carried out by The world and the Bulgarian daily Bulgaria Today had shown how French boxing could have benefited, during the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016, from the manipulation of certain matches, without the athletes knowing about it, all under the influence of the executive director of the International Boxing Association amateur (AIBA), Karim Bouzidi.
On Thursday, September 30, the findings of an independent investigation confirmed the existence of a “System” of cheating orchestrated within AIBA. “We will never know the real extent of the number of fights handled in Rio”said Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, a specialist in sports investigations, who produced the 150-page progress report. A statistical method has nevertheless made it possible to identify at least eleven “Suspicious fights” handling of the referees during these Rio Games.
In these meetings marred by possible cheating are five of the six medalists of the France team … starting with the gold dropouts Tony Yoka and Estelle Mossely, who had met the Briton Joe Joyce (over 91 kg) and the Chinese Junhua Yin (less than 60 kg).
The successes in the semi-finals of Sarah Ourahmoune and Sofiane Oumiha, respectively silver medalists in less than 51 kg and under 60 kg, as well as the victory in the quarter-finals of Souleymane Cissokho, who guaranteed him bronze for those under 69 kg are also classified in these “Suspicious fights”.
Of the six authors of this historic harvest for French boxing, only Mathieu Bauderlique, light heavyweight bronze medalist (less than 81 kg), is not mentioned in this survey.
The McLaren report does not accuse the boxers or their entourage of having intervened directly to influence the fighting, but reveals a vast system of influence piloted at the top of the AIBA, then led by Taiwanese Ching-Kuo Wu. L The investigation particularly calls into question the Frenchman Karim Bouzidi, who had been sacked three days before the end of the Rio Olympics.
The survey published by The world in March 2019 reported an internal AIBA report, written after the Rio Olympics, internal emails to the organization and a telephone conversation testifying to the suspicions weighing on Mr. Bouzidi and seven umpires labeled ” 5 stars ”- the most famous -, employees of the international federation, all suspected of having agreed to favor certain countries.
The conclusions of the investigation led by Richard McLaren “Will be delivered” at AIBA, which “Shall determine” if these fights were actually manipulated and if their results need to be changed.