Amongst the martial arts of the world, muaythai has grown into a full-fledged discipline that has gained numerous stakeholders in all the aspect of the sport starting from scholars on the history of sport finishing with specialists in sports medicine and law. The Royal World Cup will be an event where IFMA Commissions will gather again to discuss the work done and the future milestones to be achieved.
Today IFMA structure includes multiple commissions providing smooth holding of competitions and introducing new standards for the youth, male and female competitions. Experts in medicine and physiotherapy as well as sports law have extensively researched and written papers and publications with muaythai as the subject of their studies. The Female Commission has taken a special role in the IFMA family and the outstanding work carried out by Muaythai World Champion and present Chairperson of Female Commission, Ms. Sue Latta has made it possible for women from all over the world to enjoy muaythai competitions regardless of gender, culture, race, and religion.
The development of muaythai as a unique sport has given rise to the formation of such entities within this sport, whose activities protects the rights of athletes, ensures their safety, allows them focus on their performance and provides them a robust entourage for their athletic and post-athletic careers.
Every event sees an increase in the number of important meetings, with the Athletes’ Commission being the first group to be formed, expanding their scope of activity and making a difference at IFMA events and in the lives of the athletes’ lives. Many prominent athletes like Valentina Shevchenko also the Chairperson of the IFMA Athletic Commission, have taken their career to the next level combining extraordinary performance inside the ring and doing great work at the meetings standing for athletes’ rights and finding new innovative ways to allow them excel at the competition site and improving the sport itself.
Fair Play has always been at the core of muaythai and one of the most important and active groups in IFMA is Referee and Judges’ Commission which functions in conformity with the IOC criteria ensuring that all rules are observed and strict policies towards referees are maintained for the muaythai matches. The policies implemented by IFMA include nominations from the referee and a judging pool can be made up to 1 hour before a competition to ensure neutrality. Having a minimum number of protests at the IFMA competitions confirms the effective work of the R&J Commission.
Numerous professionals in sport, law, psychology, communication, and medicine are engaged in the sport of muaythai today, to foster the sport and athletic performance of competitors. Each athlete can be confident that dedicating her career to muaythai means much more than doing sport, every athlete competing under IFMA flag becomes a member of an international community with many stakeholders whose duty is to enable athletes to fully focus on their performance and herewith promote the sport to its utmost heights.