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You may have heard about some talk about a couple of boxers at the 2024 Paris Olympics who had questions about their gender eligibility, and what that all means, and how it all works.
That’s what we’ll dive into when it comes to Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, especially with the former fighting her first bout on Thursday that made some headlines.
Let’s dive in with what we know about them and the questions heading into the Olympics.
Who are the two boxers at the center of gender eligibility questions?
That would be Khelif and Yu-Ting. The pair of them were disqualified from the women’s boxing world championships in 2023 when reports said they failed gender eligibility tests.
How were they cleared for the 2024 Paris Olympics?
More from USA TODAY Sports’ Josh Peter:
The International Olympic Committee confirmed the two boxers have been cleared to compete here at the Paris Games, as they both did at the Tokyo Games in 2021. The issues of so-called gender verification or sex testing have fueled discussion at the Olympics as the fighters prepare to enter the ring at North Paris Arena. …
Last year the IOC banished the International Boxing Association (IBA), long plagued with scandal and controversy that jeopardized the future of Olympic boxing. In fact, the IOC denied IBA the right to run Olympic boxing during the Tokyo Games in 2021 and instead turned over control to an ad-hoc unit.
With that ad-hoc unit in charge, Kehlif and Lin both competed at the Tokyo Olympics. Neither won a medal.
But the IBA has maintained control of the world championships and gender eligibility rules. And after Lin won gold and Kehlif won bronze at the event in March 2023, officials announced the boxers had failed medical eligibility tests and stripped them of the medals.
IBA president Umar Kremlev said DNA tests “proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded.”
We should say out loud, and explicitly, though: they are women. They have not identified themselves in any other way. And per Time, this was said by IOC spokesperson Mark Adams:
“Everyone competing in the women’s category is participating, following, complying with the competition eligibility rules,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said during a press conference on Tuesday. “These athletes have competed many times before for many years—they haven’t just suddenly arrived.”
What happened with Khelif in her fight?
She was boxing with Italy’s Angela Carini, who quit 46 seconds in. But she claimed it wasn’t because of the gender eligibility questions but because she was in pain from Khelif’s punches. From ESPN:
A tearful Carini said she quit because of intense pain in her nose after the opening punches. Carini, who had a spot of blood on her trunks, said she wasn’t making a political statement and was not refusing to fight Khelif.
“I felt a severe pain in my nose, and with the maturity of a boxer, I said ‘enough,’ because I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to, I couldn’t finish the match,” Carini said.
Carini said she is not qualified to judge whether Khelif should be allowed to compete but had no problem fighting her.
“I am not here to judge or pass judgment,” Carini said. “If an athlete is this way, and in that sense it’s not right or it is right, it’s not up to me to decide. I just did my job as a boxer. I got into the ring and fought. I did it with my head held high and with a broken heart for not having finished the last kilometer.”
What did the IOC say about this?
There was a lengthy statement that included this:
“We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The two athletes have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category …
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.
Joint Paris 2024 Boxing Unit/IOC Statementhttps://t.co/22yVzxFuLd pic.twitter.com/fZvgsW8OOi
— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) August 1, 2024
