Ghana's Dr Ayertey Becomes First Countryman on African Boxing's Anti-Doping Committee

Eric Tetteh Ayertey | My JoyOnline

Dr Eric Tetteh Ayertey has become the first Ghanaian appointed to the Medical and Anti-Doping Committee of African Boxing, the continental body affiliated with World Boxing, putting a Ghanaian voice inside the panel that sets medical policy and anti-doping standards for the sport across the continent.

Ayertey joins four other African medical experts on the committee, which is responsible for developing medical policy, strengthening athlete safety, advancing anti-doping programmes and promoting medical standards across African boxing, including the continent's representation at world level.

World Boxing formed after the International Olympic Committee stripped the International Boxing Association of recognition over governance and financial disputes. It has spent the time since trying to convince the IOC that the sport can run a credible, testable anti-doping programme ahead of Los Angeles 2028. Continental federations building out qualified medical and anti-doping panels is part of that case, and Ayertey's appointment is a small but concrete example of it.

Ayertey brings a track record built largely inside Ghana. He sits on the medical and anti-doping sub-committee of the Ghana Boxing Interim Management Committee (IMC), where he has worked on pre-competition medical screening, ringside emergency preparedness, concussion recognition and management, athlete safeguarding and anti-doping education, and has helped write the operational frameworks Ghana Boxing has used to bring its practices closer to international standards.

Only Ghanaian Physician

He is also, by his own federation's account, the only Ghanaian physician currently certified as a ringside doctor through both the United Kingdom and United States boxing medical systems, credentials that set him apart even within a small pool of combat sports physicians on the continent. His broader career spans sports and exercise medicine, anti-doping, elite athlete healthcare, medical education and hospital practice, including work with international multisport events and academic institutions.

That Ghana Boxing is still run by an interim body makes the appointment more notable, not less. National federations under interim management are typically there because of an earlier governance failure, and continental bodies don't usually go looking for technical talent inside a federation still finding its feet. Ayertey's appointment suggests African Boxing is drawing a line between federation politics and medical competence, and it gives Ghana Boxing's IMC a credibility marker to point to as it argues for a return to normal governance.

A seat on the continental medical and anti-doping committee gives Ghanaian boxing a line into how policy gets set for the whole region, from screening protocols to the standards used to judge whether a fighter is fit to compete. That is influence a federation without World Boxing recognition, or one still under interim leadership, would otherwise struggle to buy.

Source: MyJoyOnline