Boxing Judges Emil Gurbanaliyev and Sergei Krutasov Return to Officiate Over 20 Matches at Paris Olympics Despite Previous Controversies

In a surprising development at the Paris Olympics, Emil Gurbanaliyev and Sergei Krutasov have been officiating numerous boxing matches.

Both Gurbanaliyev and Krutasov were sidelined in 2021 due to concerns over their potential to manipulate fights. Despite their previous removal from the referee and judge pool during the AIBA World Championships in Serbia in October 2021, the Paris Boxing Unit chose to include them as technical officials for the Games.

The decision to reintroduce them came after they had been subjected to integrity testing by Professor Richard McLaren, who had previously exposed state-sponsored doping in Russia.

IOC’s Stance and Integrity Checks

According to The Times, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has stated that Gurbanaliyev and Krutasov passed all background checks.

The IOC also mentioned that they did not have access to McLaren’s findings as the information had not been publicly released.

The boxing events at the Olympics are organized by the IOC, which took over from the International Boxing Association (IBA) last year due to various issues.

Controversy and Concerns

There have been concerns regarding some scorecards in Paris. Team GB believes that four of their five first-round fights were judged unfairly.

Although Gurbanaliyev and Krutasov were not involved in those particular bouts, they were among the five judges who controversially scored a fight where Wassila Lkhadiri of France was declared the winner over Ireland’s Daina Moorehouse.

McLaren’s Response

Commenting on the situation, McLaren noted, “It’s possible the IOC was unaware of Gurbanaliyev and Krutasov’s past issues. I would have preferred to have conducted tests on them myself.”

He added that while Gurbanaliyev and Krutasov have not been used in international competitions by the IBA since their removal, this does not affect their participation in other amateur boxing federations.

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