THE International Olympic Committee (IOC) has spoken out about the “gender controversy” involving Algerian female boxer Imane Khelif at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Controversy and negative speculations arose when Italian female boxer Angela Carini decided to stop fighting Khelif after 46 seconds in the ring. During the match, Carini claimed that she had “never been hit that hard in my life” by a female boxer.
Her claim then spread with the assumption that Khelif might be a transgender or not biologically born a woman.
The IOC stressed that this was false and misleading information.
“We have seen in the report misleading information about two female athletes competing at the 2024 Olympic Games. Both athletes have competed in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category, including the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships and IBA-sanctioned tournaments,” the IOC said in an official statement on Friday.
Furthermore, the IOC said that all athletes participating in the Paris 2024 Olympic boxing tournament comply with the competition eligibility and registration regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations set by the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit (PBU).
Also read: This is what the IOC said about the gender controversy of Algerian female boxer Imane Khelif
These rules also apply during the qualifying periods, including the boxing tournaments at the 2023 European Games, Asian Games, Pan American Games and Pacific Games, the 2023 ad hoc African qualifying tournament in Dakar (SEN), and the two world qualifying tournaments held in Busto Arsizio (Italy) and Bangkok (Thailand) in 2024, involving a total of 1,471 different boxers from 172 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), Refugee Boxing Teams and Individual Neutral Athletes, and featuring over 2,000 qualifying bouts.
The PBU used the Tokyo 2020 boxing rules as a basis for developing its regulations for Paris 2024. This is intended to minimise the impact on athlete preparation and ensure consistency between Games.
The Tokyo 2020 regulations are based on the post-Rio 2016 regulations, which were in place before the IOC suspended the International Boxing Federation in 2019 and withdrew its recognition in 2023.
Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting, who will fight in the semi-finals in the 57kg class, were disqualified from the 2023 world championships in New Delhi hosted by the International Boxing Association (IBA). They were deemed eligible to box in the women’s competition in Paris. The two also competed at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.
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The IBA, in a statement on Wednesday, said Lin and Khelif were disqualified from the world championships as a result of their failure to meet the eligibility criteria to participate in the women’s competition.
“The aggression against these two athletes was based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without proper procedures, especially considering that these athletes have been competing in top-level competitions for many years. Such an approach is contrary to good governance,” the IOC said.
“Eligibility rules must not be changed during the competition and any rule changes must follow a proper process and must be based on scientific evidence,” he added. (Z-6)
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