Featured Image Credit: IOC Media/Richard Pelham/Getty Images
Topics: Boxing, Olympics, Sport, Imane Khelif
Emily Brown
Topics: Boxing, Olympics, Sport, Imane Khelif
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has spoken out on the gender eligibility tests that sparked controversy after it emerged multiple boxers had previously 'failed' them.
Discussions surrounding gender eligibility tests first began at the Olympics after Italy's Angela Carini abandoned her boxing match against Algeria's Imane Khelif on August 1.
Khelif is recognized by the IOC as a female athlete and has always competed in the women's division, but last year she was disqualified from the World Championships for failing a gender eligibility test.
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The Russia-led International Boxing Association (IBA), which conducted the test, claimed she had 'failed to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women's competition, as set and laid out in the IBA regulations'.
Another Paris 2024 athlete, Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, was disqualified and stripped of a bronze medal at the World Championships for the same reason.
The IOC previously recognized the IBA as the governing body for amateur boxing, but it was stripped of its recognition due governance issues and alleged corruption.
But despite the fact the IOC no longer recognizes the IBA, the inclusion of Khelif and Yu-ting in Paris 2024 sparked controversy online.
In an interview with the BBC, IBA chief executive Chris Roberts said male XY chromosomes were found in 'both cases'.
However, the development of genes, hormones and reproductive organs can be affected by differences in sex development (DSD).
Claus Højbjerg Gravholt, a professor of genetic endocrinology, has said it is impossible to state that everyone with a Y chromosome is a male and everyone with an X chromosome is a female, The Independent reports.
Both Khelif and Yu-ting fought at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, with IOC spokesman Mark Adams pointing out: "They didn’t just suddenly arrive, they competed in Tokyo."
Adams has now doubled down against the controversy surrounding the boxers' involvement, explaining that the gender eligibility tests conducted last year were illegitimate and lacked credibility.
Speaking at a press conference on August 4, Adams said: "The tests themselves, the process of the tests, the ad-hoc nature of the tests are not legitimate and you'll also expect me to tell you that I'm not going to discuss the individual intimate details of athletes in public, which I think is pretty disgraceful for those who've leaked that material.
"Frankly, to be put in that position must be awful, on top of all of the social media harassment that these athletes have had."
He continued: "The very fact that the decision to do the testing was taken on the spot there - under what purpose, under what the test was for, I don't know. As I say, we managed to do away with sex testing in the last century so I'm not quite sure what the foundation for the testing was."