Judges ‘used signals’ to fix Olympic boxing bouts, McLaren report finds

The Guardian says a damning investigation into boxing at the Rio 2016 Olympics has found widespread evidence of “corruption, bribery and the manipulation of sporting results” – with judges giving each other signals at ringside to fix bouts.

The report by Prof Richard McLaren, who exposed state sponsored doping in Russia, said that the seeds of the corruption had been sown in the years beforehand, with bouts before and during London 2012 also under suspicion.

McLaren found that there existed a culture of “favours”, particularly among the post-Soviet countries – with Azerbaijan giving amateur boxing’s governing body, Aiba, an investment loan of $10m with the expectation that bouts would be manipulated in their favour for medals at London 2012. Four years later a $250,000 bribe was also offered by Mongolian officials in an attempt to fix an Olympic semi-final.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/sep/30/judges-signals-fix-olympic-boxing-bouts-mclaren-report