Olympic Committee Addresses Boxing Gender Controversy

The 2024 Olympics in Paris have been underway for less than a week and have already seen plenty of unforgettable moments, from the one-of-a-kind opening ceremony on the Seine to Simone Biles repeatedly making history on the mat with gold medal wins. Boxing at these Olympics, however, have been overshadowed by controversy due to the participation of one athlete. 

Imane Khelif of Algeria has come under fire following a match against Italian boxer Angela Carini that made Carini quit after just 46 seconds. Khelif's participation itself has sparked controversy, as the 25-year-old was disqualified from the International Boxing Association's World Championship last year after testing deemed her ineligible for the women's competition. Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan, who is also competing at the 2024 Paris Olympics, was disqualified in the same manner.

The IBA on Wednesday stated that this was not a testosterone test, but rather “a separate and recognized test, whereby the specifics remain confidential. This test conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors."

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Khelif initially appealed this decision, but later withdrew the appeal. Yu-Ting did not appeal.

In a statement released Aug. 1, the IOC addressed the controversy head-on and stood up for the boxers in question. 

"We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024," the IOC stated plainly. "The two athletes have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category, including the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships, and IBA-sanctioned tournaments," the organization pointed out. 

"These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process," the note read. 

"The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure—especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years. Such an approach is contrary to good governance," the statement continued. 

"The IOC is saddened by the abuse that the two athletes are currently receiving," it added.

Joint Paris 2024 Boxing Unit/IOC Statementhttps://t.co/22yVzxFuLd pic.twitter.com/fZvgsW8OOi

— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) August 1, 2024

The IOC and IBA have different medical standards for competitors, and the IBA for years served as boxing's official governing body for the Olympics. That relationship began to fray in 2019 and was severed in 2023. The organization's former president Gafur Rakhimov was sanctioned by the U.S. for an alleged role in the heroin trade and organized crime, prompting questions about the IBA's integrity and finances, and his replacement Umar Kremlev earned disapproval for tying the organization's finances to Russian state energy company Gazprom. 

As the IOC mentioned, both Khelif and Lin have always competed in women's categories at competitions around the world and have female gender markers on their passports. Neither athlete has publicly identified as transgender or intersex. The IOC determines eligibility based on the gender marked on the competitor's passport. 

Algeria's Olympic Committee has spoken out against the uproar, calling it "baseless propaganda" and "unethical targeting and maligning of our esteemed athlete." Algeria does not allow medical gender transition nor recognition of transgender people on official documents, Equaldex notes.

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It's not the first time a woman athlete's gender has been called into question after eligibility testing. In 2009, then-18-year-old South African runner Caster Semenya similarly faced international backlash and underwent sex testing, sparking controversy worldwide. Semenya went on to win back-to-back gold medals in the 800 meters at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. In 2019, World Athletics implemented new rules preventing athletes like Semenya with certain disorders of sex development (DSDs) from participating in select events. She's since filed multiple lawsuits to be able to compete in races, ultimately earning a victory in Swiss court last year. 

Still, the IOC is looking into how to better implement gender eligibility rules moving forward. If the issue isn't resolved, you might not see boxing at all when the Olympics come to Los Angeles in four years. 

"The IOC has made it clear that it needs national boxing federations to reach a consensus around a new international federation in order for boxing to be included on the sports program of the Olympic Games LA28," the statement concluded. 

Khelif is set to face off against Anna Luca Hámori of Hungary in the quarterfinals on Aug. 3. Lin will box against Uzbekistan's Sitora Turdibekova in the round of 16 on Aug. 2.