▲ Muaythai·Kickboxing failed to be adopted in '2028 34th Los Angeles Summer Olympics.'    ©Seok-mu Mason KWON

Muaythai and Kickboxing failed to be adopted to the official sports of the ‘2028 34th Los Angeles Summer Olympics (here-in-after referred to as the 2028 LA).

At the 141st IOC Session of the International Olympic Committee (President Thomas Bach, IOC) held on Saturday, the 14th and running until Tuesday, the 17th October, among the 10 sports, such as △baseball/softball △breaking dance △cricket △flag football ▲karate ▲kickboxing ▲muaythai △lacrosse △squash △motorsports, etc, 5 sports were selected as final candidates, including △baseball/softball △cricket △flag football △lacrosse △squash.

According to sources of international sports experts, Muaythai and Kickboxing were discussed very closely with the five events included in the final candidates, but they were not listed on the shortlist of IOC.

The host countries of the quadrennial Olympics will be given the chance to add additional official sports in addition to the existing 28 core sports. As the cost of hosting the Olympics becomes increasingly enormous, it is a kind of host country benefit provided by the IOC that increases medal performance by adding some new official sports in which the host country is strong. 

At the ‘2020 32nd Tokyo Summer Olympics,’ which spent about 12.9 billion USD on hosting costs, new official sports such as △karate △surfing △skateboarding △sports climbing were added. In particular, in the case of Karate, the Asian Martial Arts sport was adopted for the third time in history as an official sport at the Summer Olympics, following Judo and Taekwondo, but it was immediately excluded from the official sport of the ‘2024 33rd Paris Summer Olympics.’

For the French national athlete team, Karate is not very likely to win a medal. In this context, it is also understandable why Muaythai and Kickboxing were not chosen at the 2028 LA. It is highly likely that the U.S. national athlete team was less likely to win gold medals in Muaythai or Kickboxing than those in Baseball, Lacrosse, and Squash, etc.

Of course, many international sports experts said it is encouraging that the ‘International Federation of Muaythai Associations (President Dr. Sakchye Tapsuwan, IFMA)’ and the ‘World Association of Kickboxing Organizations (President Roy Baker, WAKO)’ have begun to be listed as candidates for official Olympic sports as members of the ‘Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (President Dr. Raffaele Chiulli, ARISF).’ It must have been their intention to be full for the first drink.

Currently, ARISF includes not only Muaythai (IFMA) and Kickboxing (WAKO), but also international federations of martial arts and Combat sports such as △Karate (WKF) △Wushu (IWF) △Sambo (FIAS) △Sumo (ISF), and it is actually encouraging that Muaythai and Kickboxing have quickly emerged as official sports for the next Summer Olympics.

Nevertheless, for Muaythai or Kickboxing to be finally adopted as an official Olympic sport, efforts will be needed to select the host country and to reform the perception among IOC members on Asian Martial Arts. The best way would be to hold the Olympics in the host country of their sports, but Muaythai is likely to be easily adopted if Thailand, the host country, holds the Olympics, but in the case of Kickboxing, the concept of the host country is ambiguous and even this is not easy.

Considering economic capabilities of Thailand, Muaythai would also be quite burdensome under the current circumstances to hold an Summer Olympics that would cost tens of billions of USD in just one event.

Now, the ‘2032 35th Brisbane Summer Olympics’ is the closest option to whether Muaythai and Kickboxing can be seen at the Olympics. From here on, the political capabilities of the international federations in each sports and their ties with the next host country are seen as the most important parts.