"Misleading": IOC condemns "abuse" hurled at Olympic boxer
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has released a statement to condemn the "abuse" and "discrimination" that has targeted Algerian boxer Imane Khelif after her controversial match in Paris.
The match, which was abandoned after just 46 seconds when her Italian opponent Angela Carini tapped out, caused quite the stir when Carini said she had "never been hit that hard in my life".
Following the controversial match, Khelif's history came to light with many pointing out how she was permitted to fight at the Olympics despite being disqualified from the women’s boxing world championships last year for failing gender eligibility tests.
Khelif, who was born female and has always identified as such, has been hit with a wave of transphobic abuse from high profile figures including J.K Rowling and Elon Musk after the revelations came to light.
The 25-year-old athlete, who has been boxing since she was a child and has always competed in women’s categories, was tested by the International Boxing Association (IBA) with IBA president Umar Kremlev saying DNA tests had “proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded”.
For males, XY is the combination of chromosomes while XX is the combination in females.
As Khelif has always identified as female, there are a number of medical conditions that can cause a woman to also have XY chromosomes.
The IOC has since spoken out in defence of Khelif, denouncing the “abuse” levelled at the Khelif as “discrimination”, while confirming she had followed the eligibility criteria to compete at the Games.
“Every person has the right to practise sport without discrimination,” the statement released on Friday said.
“We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024."
The second athlete in question is referring to fellow boxer, Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu-ting, who underwent the same testing from the IBA and returned the same XY chromosome results as Khelif.
“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."
“The IOC is saddened by the abuse that the two athletes are currently receiving.”
The statement went on to call out the IBA's DNA testing, reading, "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."
"Such an approach is contrary to good governance."
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