Paris Olympics: IOC doubles down on its decision to permit two boxers who failed gender eligibility tests to compete

PARIS — The International Olympic Committee doubled down on its decision to permit Imane Khelif and Lin Yu‑ting to compete in Paris, strongly backing the two boxers barred from the 2023 world championships after failing gender eligibility tests.

In a lengthy statement released late Thursday night, the IOC began with the declaration that "every person has the right to practice sport without discrimination" and then laid out a case in defense of Khelif and Yu-ting.

In Olympic boxing competitions, an athlete’s gender is determined by his or her passport, the IOC statement said. All the women participating in the boxing tournament have passports that indicate they are female, an IOC spokesperson said Tuesday.

Khelif and Yu-ting, the IOC statement notes, “have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category.” The Algerian and Chinese-Taipei boxers participated in the Tokyo Olympics with no controversy, Khelif reaching the women’s lightweight quarterfinals and Yu-ting losing in the women’s featherweight round of 16.

The IOC issued its statement hours after an emotionally charged fight between Khelif and Italy's Angela Carini threw lighter fluid on an already smoldering controversy. Carini abandoned the round of 16 bout at the Paris Olympics after just 46 seconds, tearfully explaining afterward that Khelif's punches were stronger than any she'd ever endured and that one blow to the nose in particular left her in too much pain to continue.

"I had entered the ring to fight," Carini said in Italian after. "I didn't give up, but a punch hurt too much and so I said enough. I go out with my head held high."

In March 2023, the International Boxing Association ordered Khelif and Yu-ting to undergo a gender eligibility test during the IBA World Championships in New Delhi. When the results became available after seven days, the IBA disqualified Khelif hours before her gold-medal bout and Yu-ting hours before her bronze-medal bout.

The IBA did not specify exactly what type of testing it used but explained at the time that Khelif and Yu-ting "failed to meet eligibility rules." IBA President Umar Kremlev told the Russian news agency Tass last year that the disqualifications were because "it was proven they have XY chromosomes."

The International Olympic Committee has since stripped the IBA of its status as the global governing body for boxing because of long-running governance issues and a series of judging scandals. That leaves boxing in Paris under the umbrella of the IOC’s Paris 2024 Boxing unit, which has more relaxed rules than the IBA and has chosen to disregard the results of Khelif’s and Yu-Ting’s gender eligibility tests last year.

In Thursday night’s statement, the IOC described the IBA’s decision to disqualify Khelif and Yu-Ting as “sudden and arbitrary.” An IBA statement released earlier in the day described the organization’s decision making process as “meticulous” and said the IOC’s stance on this situation “raises serious questions about both competitive fairness and athletes’ safety."

Prior to Thursday's fight, Italian officials publicly questioned the fairness of the IOC allowing Khelif to compete. Many people pressured Carini not to fight, her coach Emmanuel Renzini said, telling the Italian boxer, "Don't go, don't go, please. She's a man. It's dangerous for you."

Barely 30 seconds into the fight, Carini raised her hand and asked for the fight to be stopped. Renzini urged her to try to make it to the end of the first round, but Carini raised her hand again after absorbing just one more punch from Khelif and asked once more to abandon the fight.

“She’s too strong,” Renzini recalled Carini telling him.

When asked their opinion whether Khelif should be allowed to compete against women, Carini and her coach were both diplomatic.

"I wouldn't want to be in those shoes,” Renzini said, “because I think it's a very difficult decision."

Khelif was escorted past reporters by her coaches after Thursday's fight and did not stop to talk. Only a day earlier, Algeria’s Olympic committee released a statement strongly condemning the international media’s “unethical targeting and maligning” of Khelif.

“Such attacks on her personality and dignity are deeply unfair, especially as she prepares for the pinnacle of her career at the Olympics,” the statement read.

The attacks worsened Thursday after Khelif's dominant victory. In a post on X, activist Riley Gaines called the bout between Khelif and Carini "glorified male violence against women"

Author JK Rowling shared a picture of Carini in tears and Khelif trying to comfort her. The caption from Rowling read, "The smirk of a male who's [sic] knows he's protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he's just punched in the head, and whose life's ambition he's just shattered."

The IOC condemned “the current aggression against these two athletes.”

In its statement, the IOC said it is “saddened by the abuse that the two athletes are currently receiving.”