International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has defended the participation of boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting in Paris 2024, asserting that there was “never any doubt” about their gender.
The involvement of Algeria’s Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin has stirred controversy, as they were disqualified from the 2023 World Championships.
The Russian-led International Boxing Association (IBA), which previously managed Olympic boxing, had removed them from the event after alleging they failed gender eligibility tests.
“Let’s be very clear, we are talking about women’s boxing,” said Bach at Saturday’s daily IOC briefing.
“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.
“This is the clear definition of a woman. There was never any doubt about them being a woman.”
Khelif and Lin, both longtime competitors in the women’s division and recognized by the IOC as female athletes, have advanced to the quarter-finals in their respective weight classes.
Khelif, 25, won her welterweight bout against Angela Carini, who withdrew after just 46 seconds. Carini stated she ended the fight to “preserve her life” but later apologized, affirming her respect for the IOC’s decision to allow Khelif to compete.
Lin, 28, secured a victory over Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova in the featherweight division on Friday.
Khelif will face Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori on Saturday, while Lin will compete against Bulgaria’s Svetlana Kamenova Staneva on Sunday morning.
Both Hamori and Staneva have expressed concerns about competing against boxers whose Olympic participation has been questioned.
The IBA has criticized the IOC’s decision to allow Khelif and Lin to compete, while the IOC has questioned the accuracy of the IBA’s tests.
“What we see now is that some want to own the definition of who is a woman,” added Bach.
“There I can only invite them to come up with a scientific-based, new definition of who is a woman and how can somebody being born, raised, competed and having a passport as a woman cannot be considered a woman.
“If they are coming up with something, we are ready to listen, we are ready to look into it, but we will not take part in a sometimes politically-motivated, cultural war.
“Allow me to say that what is going on in this context in social media with all this hate speech, with this aggression and abuse fuelled by this agenda is totally unacceptable.”
Imane’s father, Omar Khelif, told Sky News: “My child is a girl.”
He added: “She was raised as a girl. She’s a strong girl. I raised her to be hard-working and brave. She has a strong will to work and to train.
“The Italian opponent she faced was unable to defeat my daughter because my daughter was stronger and she was softer.”
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