The boxing event at the ongoing Paris Olympics has suddenly found itself in the middle of a controversy surrounding the gender of one boxer after Algeria’s Imane Khelif won her round of 16 welterweight bout over Italy’s Angela Carini in 46 seconds.
Carini, whose defence was below-par through the bout, quit after receiving a punch that landed on the face. Later, Carini broke down in front of the cameras where she was heard saying that she’d never been hit this hard before — were shared across social media. The main allegation was that Khelif was a man/trans-person and so should be banned from the women’s event.
Khelif was born a cis woman as declared in her passport – and it’s on this basis that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) determines eligibility to participate in women’s events. She has been competing in women’s competition for several years. In fact, she represented Algeria in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as well, where she lost in the quarterfinals.
She finished 17th in the 2018 AIBA World Championships, and 33rd in the 2019 one before reaching the final in the 2022 Worlds, where she lost to Amy Broadhurst of Ireland.
“Have a lot of people texting me over Imane Khelif. Personally I don’t think she has done anything to ‘cheat’. I think it’s the way she was born and that’s out of her control. The fact that she has been beaten by 9 females before says it all,” Broadhurst said.
“I don’t support Male Vs Female in anything. It’s wrong! But nothing has been confirmed that this person is a male. If it comes out that this person is male I’ll be disgusted but right now everyone is assuming without knowing real facts. This was Imane as a child,” Broadhurst said by sharing a childhood picture of Imane.
The allegations against Khelif and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu-Ting, also participating in Paris, gained momentum after they were disqualified by the International Boxing Association (IBA) at the 2023 world championships after failing an unspecified gender eligibility test.
The IBA on Wednesday issued a statement saying neither boxer had had a “testosterone examination” in 2023 but were “subject to a separate and recognized test” for their disqualification. The IBA said the test’s “specifics remain confidential” and did not explain it.
However, the IBA has been derecognised by the IOC for financial mismanagement, governance, and integrity issues in 2019 and since then, the boxing events at the Olympics (Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024) are being handled by a special unit (Paris 2024 Boxing Unit) set up by the IOC.
Refuting the IBA’s claims, the IOC and PBU put out a joint statement where it said, “every person has the right to practice sport without discrimination.”
“These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process,” the statement read.
“According to the IBA minutes available on their website, this decision was initially taken solely by the IBA Secretary General and CEO. 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.”
In response, the IBA on Thursday alleged “inconsistencies in eligibility” at the Games.
“Both Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting post testing, did not meet the required eligibility criteria to compete within the female category of our respective events. The urgent nature of the decision (to disqualify the boxers) was justified, as the safety of our boxers is our top priority,” the IBA statement read.