Criticism of Woman Boxers Who Failed Gender Test Unacceptable: Olympic Committe
Boxer Lin Yu-Ting. Photo: X/ @RekishitoSeiji
August 3, 2024 Hour: 10:53 am
Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting were cleared to compete at Paris despite being disqualified at the 2023 World Championships
On Saturday, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said that the hatred toward woman boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting were “unacceptable”.
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The pair were cleared to compete at the Paris Olympics despite being disqualified at the 2023 World Championships after failing International Boxing Association (IBA)’s gender tests last year.
The IBA’s recognition was withdrawn by the IOC in 2023 following its suspension in 2019 over governance issues. The IOC is taking charge of the Paris 2024 boxing competition.
But Khelif has been under fire online after her Italian opponent Angela Carini surrendered after just 46 seconds on Thursday and said the punches were too hard.
“We have two boxers, who were born as women. Both have been raised as woman, who have passport as a woman and who have competed for many years as women. There was never any doubt about them being women,” Bach said.
“What is going on in this context in social media with all this hate speech, with this aggression and abuse, and fueled by this agenda, is totally unacceptable,” he added, noting that the IOC still wants to include boxing in the program for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, but a new international federation needs to be created.
“Now, the national boxing federations, they have to make that choice, it’s up to them. If they want their athletes to win medals in Olympic Games in a fair competition with an international federation… they must find an international federation as a partner before the IOC. It is in their hands,” said the IOC chief.
