Two Olympic boxers — Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan — have found themselves at the center of an unfounded gender eligibility controversy. And now both have advanced to their respective finals where they'll fight for gold medals.
Khelif and Lin came under scrutiny after Khelif’s first victory at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Following that match, which lasted less than a minute, viewers learned that Khelif and Lin were disqualified last year from a boxing competition outside the Olympics due to alleged results from an unspecified test.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has since called the gender eligibility concerns "totally unacceptable," and said the controversy is fueling "hate speech" and "aggression" towards the athletes, per NBC News.
All of that hasn't kept the two athletes from victory, however.
Khelif won her quarterfinal match at the Paris Olympics on Saturday against Hungary's Anna Luca Hamori, thus securing a spot in the semifinals and guaranteeing herself a medal, according to the Associated Press.
"I want to tell the entire world that I am a female, and I will remain a female," Khelif said after her win.
With an Algerian flag around her back and appearing to fight tears, she told reporters after the match: "I dedicate this medal to the world, and to all the Arabs and I tell you, 'Long live Algeria!'"
On Sunday, Aug. 4, Khelif told SNTV, a sports video partner of The Associated Press, that the gender misconceptions are fueling hateful rhetoric that “harms human dignity.” She also pleaded with the public to stop this mistreatment of athletes.
"I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles and the Olympic Charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects," Khelif said in Arabic, per the AP.
"It can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit and mind. It can divide people," Khelif continued. "And because of that, I ask them to refrain from bullying."
Lin also won her quarterfinal boxing match on Sunday, besting Bulgaria's Svetlana Staneva to secure a medal.
"I especially want to thank the public from Taiwan for standing behind meand giving me support and cheering me," she said after the fight, per NBC News, "although I don’t have the time to respond to every message you sent."
And she bested Esra Yildiz Kahraman of Turkey on Aug. 7, putting her in the final round. After that match, Lin said, she'll "Take it one step at a time, focus on each match, seize every opportunity in the ring and aim for victory until the end," NBC News reported.
How did the controversy over gender eligibility start?
On Thursday, Khelif defeated Italian boxer Angela Carini in a fight that lasted just 46 seconds, NBC News reports.
Following that bout, reports resurfaced that Khelif and Lin, who won her match on Friday against Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan, were disqualified from the Women’s World Boxing Championships last year in New Delhi after failing to meet gender eligibility tests.
Both were barred from competing after unspecified tests suggested they had male chromosomes, a decision the IOC called "sudden and arbitrary" in a statement released on Thursday. In its statement, the IOC strongly reaffirmed that the two athletes were eligible to compete in Paris.
Olympics officials on Sunday called the process "flawed," adding, per AP, "From the conception of the test, to how the test was shared with us, to how the tests have become public, is so flawed that it’s impossible to engage with it."
Did a male boxer beat a woman at the Olympics?
No. Despite the controversy swirling online, Khelif has always competed as a woman. And there's no indication that Khelif is intersex or transgender, NBC News reports.
And in its statement, the IOC made it clear the boxers met all the rules necessary to compete at the 2024 Olympic Games. The statement also calls recent reports questioning the boxers’ genders "misleading information about two female athletes" and states that the two have competed in the women's category for many years.
"The Algerian boxer was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport," said Mark Adams, chief spokesperson for the IOC, at a news conference Friday, per the AP.
"This is not a transgender case," he continued. "There has been some confusion that somehow it’s a man fighting a woman. This is just not the case, scientifically."
He emphasized that the athletes are also not transgender, adding, "The question you have to ask yourself is, are these athletes women? The answer is yes, according to their eligibility, their passport, their history."
At a news conference Saturday, IOC president Thomas Bach reaffirmed that the two boxers were "born as women," adding, "there was never any doubt about them being a woman."
"What we see now is that some want to own the definition of who is a woman," Bach said.
"And allow me to say that what is going on in this context in the social media, with all this hate speech, with this aggression and abuse, fueled by this agenda, is totally unacceptable," he added.
Who is Imane Khelif?
Khelif is a 25-year-old boxer from Algeria who became the center of a gender eligibility controversy when she beat her opponent in a fight in just 46 seconds.
Following that match, reports circulated that Khelif was previously disqualified from the 2023 World Boxing Championship due to allegedly failing an unspecified gender eligibility test. The IOC has denounced the test, calling it too "flawed" to engage with.
Khelif lives in Tiaret, Algeria. She is 5'10" and competes in the women's 66 kilogram category.
After winning her first two matches at the 2024 Paris Olympics, she's already set to earn at least a bronze in her event.
What are the gender eligibility rules for the Olympics?
In 2021, the IOC updated its gender eligibility guidelines, including the participation of transgender athletes, to defer to each sport's governing body.
But when it comes to boxing, the IOC no longer defers to the International Boxing Association.
Last year, the IOC withdrew its recognition of the IBA following a host of governmental transparency issues, including concerns over instances of corruption, as NBC News explains. Instead, the IOC is following the guidelines of the ad-hoc Paris 2024 Boxing Unit.
"All athletes participating in the boxing tournament of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations set by the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit," the IOC statement reads.
Age and gender information for boxers competing in the Paris Olympics is taken from their passports, as has been the case in previous Olympic boxing competitions, according to the statement.
The IOC statement also notes that the "two athletes have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category, including the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships and IBA-sanctioned tournaments."
Why were Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting disqualified from previous boxing competitions?
The two athletes were disqualified from the Women's World Boxing Championships last year after Umar Kremlev, president of the IBA, alleged that test results showed they carried male chromosomes.
"Based on DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to trick their colleagues into posing as women," Kremlev,who is Russian, told Russian news agency Tassat the time, per NBC News.
Russia has no teams competing in the 2024 Olympics, as it's been banned. Some Russians are competing individually, but none are boxers.
"According to the results of the tests, it was proved that they have XY chromosomes. Such athletes were excluded from competition," Kremlev said. (While males carry XY chromosomes, females carry XX chromosomes. And some intersex people carry XY chromosomes but present as female.)
In its statement, the IOC has made it clear that it disagreed with the IBA's conclusion —and denounced the treatment that Khelif and Lin have received since.
"The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure — especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years," the IOC statement reads. "Such an approach is contrary to good governance."
IOC spokesman Mark Adams on Sunday "there's a whole range of reasons" why the IOC won't engage with the previous tests. "Partly confidentiality. Partly medical issues. Partly that there was no basis for the test in the first place. And partly data-sharing of this is also highly against the rules, international rules."
Khelif responded to her disqualification in 2023 with allegations that some "did not want Algeria to win a gold medal."
"This is a conspiracy and a big conspiracy, and we will not be silent about it," she told Algeria’s Ennahar TV, per NBC News.
Why did Angela Carini walk out of her boxing match?
During the match on the first of August, Khelif and Carini exchanged a few punches, and Carini abruptly withdrew from the fight after less than a minute. She appeared to be in tears and refused to shake Khelif's hand following the bout, according to NBC News. Carini was also clearly seen touching her nose.
Afterward, Carini told reporters at the event that she ended the fight because had "severe pain" in her nose.
While celebrities and politicians have not stopped themselves from weighing in on the controversy, Carini expressed that the decision on whether or not Khelif should have been allowed to compete was not up to her.
"I am not here to judge or pass judgment," Carini said, per NBC News. "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."
The day after the fight, Carini expressed her apologies to Khelif.
"My face and nose were hurting," Carini told Italian sports outlet Gazzetta dello Sport. "I couldn’t breathe anymore. I thought about my family, I looked at my brother in the stands and I went to my corner to retire. … I’ve never been hit with such a powerful punch."
"All this controversy makes me sad," she continued. "I’m sorry for my opponent, too. … If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision."
Carini also said she regretted not shaking Khelif's hand after the match. "It wasn’t something I intended to do," Carini said. "Actually, I want to apologize to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke. I don’t have anything against Khelif. Actually, if I were to meet her again, I would embrace her."
When are Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting scheduled to compete again?
Both boxers will continue to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics and are now in their respective gold medal matches.
Khelif is set to go up against Yang Liu of China tomorrow, Aug. 9.
And Lin will next face Poland’s Julia Szeremetaon Saturday, Aug. 10.
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