IOC backing women boxers amid gender backlash

PARIS — The two women boxers at the heart of a gender dispute at the Paris Olympics will stay in the competition for as long as they keep winning because they meet all eligibility criteria, the International Olympic Committee said Monday.

The IOC is in charge of holding the boxing tournament in Paris after stripping recognition of the International Boxing Association last year following failure to implement governance and finance reforms.

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s double world champion Lin Yu-ting, who have reached the semifinals of their respective weight divisions, were cleared to compete at the Games despite having been disqualified during the 2023 World Championships.

The IBA on Monday said the boxers failed an eligibility test after having undergone a chromosome test during the 2023 worlds, and that the IBA had informed the IOC at the time.

The boxing body insists the fighters should not be competing in Paris.

“These athletes have been competing in senior competitions for six years with no issues,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said. “These women were eligible for this contest, remain eligible for this contest and compete in this contest.”

Both boxers have already secured at least a bronze medal by reaching this stage. Khelif, whose first-round fight against Angela Carini lasted 46 seconds before the Italian opted to stop after soaking up a string of powerful punches, faces Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng on Tuesday. Lin takes on Turkey’s Esra Kahraman Yildiz on Wednesday.

Khelif on Sunday called for an end to the bullying of athletes amid the international backlash, saying the hateful scrutiny she has faced over misconceptions about her gender “harms human dignity.”

Khelif’s father, Amar, told Reuters that he was proud of his daughter and backed her to win a medal for Algeria.

The IOC has rejected the results of the IBA-ordered tests as arbitrary and illegitimate, saying there was no reason to conduct them.

“I cannot tell you if they were credible or not credible [gender tests] because the source from which they came was not credible and the basis for the tests was not credible,” Adams said. “For that reason there was no consideration of whether they were correct or not correct because they had no bearing for the eligibility of boxing here.”

At these Games, the IOC is using boxing eligibility rules that were applied at the 2016 and 2021 Olympics, and those do not include gender testing.

The Olympic body has been locked in a long-running dispute with the IBA from even before it stripped it of its recognition, with IBA president Umar Kremlev, a Russian, openly attacking IOC president Thomas Bach with a series of inflammatory social media posts in recent days.

The IOC has urged national boxing federations to create a new global governing body or risk the sport missing out on the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.