Algeria's Imane Khelif, left, fights Italy's Angela Carini in their women's 66-kg preliminary boxing match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in Paris.John Locher/The Associated Press
The head of the International Olympic Committee has strongly supported two female boxers whose genders have been called into question at the Paris Games, and he condemned the social-media attacks against both athletes.
Algeria’s Imane Khelif, 25, and Taiwan’s Lin Yu‑ting, 28, have been under intense scrutiny since the Games began and there have been growing calls for them to be banned from competing as women.
The controversy escalated when Italian boxer Angela Carini, 25, abandoned her fight against Khelif on Thursday after just 46 seconds because she said the Algerian punched too hard.
That has led to an outpouring of criticism against Khelif, Lin and the IOC. Khelif won again on Saturday, defeating Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori and advancing to the semi-finals. Before the bout, Hamori reposted a cartoon on Instagram depicting her opponent as the monster from Beauty and the Beast.
On Saturday, IOC President Thomas Bach said the organization had no doubts about both boxers competing as women.
“We have two boxers who are born as a woman, who have been raised as a woman, who have a passport as a woman, and who have competed for many years as a woman, and this is the clear definition of a woman,” he told a press conference. “We will not take part in a sometimes politically motivated cultural war.”
He added, “What is going on in this context, in the social media, with all this hate speech, with this aggression and abuse and fuelled by this agenda, is totally unacceptable.”
IOC President Thomas Bach during the press conference on Aug. 3, 2024.Carlos Perez Gallardo/Reuters
The controversy first erupted last year when the two were expelled from the world boxing championships by the International Boxing Association over allegations that they had high levels of testosterone. The head of the IBA, Umar Kremlev, has also suggested that both have XY chromosomes, which are found in males.
The IBA has not revealed the results of its gender testing on the boxers, and the two have not been banned from other tournaments because of excessive testosterone levels. The IBA is also not recognized by the IOC because of allegations of rampant corruption.
After Khelif’s fight with Carini, the Italian gave a tearful press conference in which she said that she could not carry on because Khelif’s jabs hurt too much. “I went to the corner, I raised my hand and I said, ‘Enough – it’s too painful,’ ” she told reporters.
That led to a wave of condemnation on social media.
“I think that athletes who have male genetic characteristics should not be admitted to women’s competitions,” said Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Author J.K. Rowling, who has been outspoken on transgender issues, called the IOC a “disgrace” in a series of posts on X. “A young female boxer has just had everything she’s worked and trained for snatched away because you allowed a male to get in the ring with her,” she said in one post.
What’s happening today at the Olympics
Has boxing fought its last Olympic round?
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova agreed with some of Rowling’s posts and said, “This is all on IOC and those in power who make the rules. It’s a travesty and makes a mockery of all Olympic sports.”
Mr. Bach said the IOC has strict regulations based on science to determine the eligibility of female athletes. “You will not come to a proper decision if you organize a poll in the social media: ‘Do you think this person is a woman?’ ” he said. “And everybody in our world apparently feels obliged to say everything to anything without really considering the sometimes very complex circumstances.”
He also noted that both fighters have lost several bouts over the years and their gender has never been called into question before. And he questioned the motives of the IBA and Kremlev, who has vigorously criticized the IOC for allowing the boxers to compete at the Games.
Bach said Kremlev and the IBA have been waging “a defamation campaign against France, against the Games, against the IOC. They have made a number of comments in this respect, which I do not want to repeat to give them too much honour.”
A screen shows Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting fighting against Uzbekistan's Sitora Turdibekova in the women's 57kg preliminaries round of 16 boxing match during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, during a live telecast of Olympic Games at a sports bar in Taipei on August 2, 2024.SAM YEH/Getty Images
There has been speculation that Khelif and Lin could be among a handful of athletes who identify as women but have differences of sex development, or DSD, which causes higher levels of testosterone. Several sports organizations including the governing bodies for track and field, cycling, swimming and rugby union have tightened their rules concerning testosterone levels. World Athletics requires DSD athletes competing in some events to take medication to lower their testosterone levels.
However, Bach said the case of the boxers did not involve DSD or transgender issues. “This is about the woman taking part in a woman’s competition,” he said. “I would only like to ask, really, each and everybody to respect these women and to respect them as women, to respect them as human beings.”
The IOC later issued a clarification, saying that Bach had misspoke about DSD and intended to say only that “this is not a transgender case.” The IOC did not provide further details.
During the press conference Bach also pointed to an interview Carini gave to Italian magazine Gazetta dello Sport on Friday.
In the article, Carini said she regretted her comments after the fight, and said she wanted to apologize to Khelif. “All this controversy certainly made me sad, and I also felt sorry for my opponent. She had nothing to do with it and, like me, was only here to fight,” she said. “I have nothing against Khelif and on the contrary, if I happened to meet her again, I would give her a hug.”
The dispute between the IOC and the IBA has raised doubts about whether boxing would remain in the Olympics.
Most competitions at the Games are organized by the governing bodies of each sport, but because of its battle with the IBA, the IOC itself has run the boxing tournaments at the Tokyo and Paris Olympics.
Bach was asked on Saturday if that arrangement would continue at the next summer Olympics in Los Angeles. While he said the IOC wanted to keep boxing in the Games, it was up to national boxing organizations around the world to establish a new governing body. “Boxing can only be in the Olympic Games in L.A. if we have a reliable partner,” he said.
Follow the latest news and highlights from the Paris Olympic Games