The International Olympic Committee has slammed “misleading” reports about the gender of two female boxers, calling the abuse directed at the athletes like Imane Khelif and Lin Yu Ting as “sad”.
Despite all of the victories we’ve seen from women at Paris 2024, the tournament hasn’t been without its fair share of issues — namely, when it comes to gender eligibility.
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif is now abuse online after her fight against Italian Angela Carini was abandoned after just 46 seconds on Thursday. The match has prompted everyone from Elon Musk to J. K. Rowling — neither of whom are women’s sporting experts — to share their hot takes online.
Khelif, who was assigned female at birth and has always identified as a woman, failed the controversial gender eligibility test at last year’s World Championships, but was approved by the IOC to represent Algeria in boxing at Paris 2024.
In a joint statement released on Friday, the IOC and Paris 2024 “every person has the right to practise sport without discrimination.”
“All athletes participating in the boxing tournament of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations set by the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit (PBU),” the statement reads.
“As with previous Olympic boxing competitions, the gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport.”
The joint statement also clarified the “misleading” claims being made about the athletes.
“We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024,” the statement continued, referring to Taiwan’s Lin Yu Ting as well as Khelif.
“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.
“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.”
Earlier this week, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said he feared the eligibility would turn into a “witch hunt”.
“These boxers are completely eligible. They are women on their passports, they are women who have competed in the Tokyo Olympics and have been competing for many years,” he said at a news conference.
“I think we all have a responsibility to tone it down and not turn it into a witch hunt.”
Meanwhile, Irish boxer Amy Broadhurst — who has fought, and beat Khelif in the past — took to social media to defend her.
“Personally I don’t think she has done anything to ‘cheat’. I thinks it’s the way she was born that’s out of her control,” she said.
“The fact that she has been beaten by nine females before says it all.”
The IBA’s own meeting minutes from the time in which these athletes were banned state that the organisation needed to “establish a clear procedure on gender testing”.
World Boxing boss Boris Van Der Vorst expressed his disappointment in the conclusions spectators and internet commentators jumped to.
“I have not seen one single test that is proving that (the boxers are) transgender,” Van Der Vorst said.
“That’s the reason why it’s not very respectful for the boxers who are competing here … to speak about them in these terms. That’s what I’m trying to stress. When there is proof, yeah, that’s a different situation. But I haven’t seen anything that proves it.”
Earlier this week, Zambian footballers Barbra Banda and Rachael Kundananji made headlines after their gender eligibility was also called into question by Australian journalist Lucy Zelic. Even though both players were assigned female at birth and adhered to all Olympic gender eligibility requirements, they were not safe from online trolling.
You can watch the rest of the boxing, and the Olympics live on Channel 9 and 9Now.
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