Outraged Barry McGuigan told Olympic chiefs to “hang their heads in shame” after a boxer beat her opponent after failing a gender test.
25-year-old Italian Angela Carini drops last-16 welterweight bout with “biological man” Iman Khalif 46 secondsHe insisted: “I had to protect my life.”
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Carini broke down in tears in the ring and refused to shake hands with Algerian player Khalif, who was disqualified from the women’s world championship 18 months ago and accused of “pretending to be a woman”.
“It’s shocking, dangerous and deeply unfair to women and girls,” said McGuigan, 63, a former world featherweight champion.
“IOC, hang your head in shame.”
“The IOC is derelict in its duty to female boxers,” said Sharon Davis, 61, an Olympic silver medal-winning swimmer.
“It’s a fight between a biological male and female and it’s there for everyone to see.”
“There is no doubt that the IOC does not care if a woman gets seriously injured or even worse.”
Khalif, 25, and Lin Yu-Ting, 28, of Chinese Taipei, who was competing today, have both been ruled out of the world championships to be held in New Delhi in March 2023.
International Boxing The association claimed that tests showed he had male XY chromosomes and elevated testosterone levels.
Olympic gender controversy
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has sparked a major controversy by allowing two women to participate in boxing who had earlier failed gender tests.
Iman Khalif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan have been disqualified from the Women’s World Championships to be held in New Delhi, India in March 2023.
Lin Yu-ting was stripped of the bronze medal for failing the gender eligibility test.
Khalif was disqualified after failing a testosterone level test in New Delhi.
Officials found that tests showed he had ‘XY chromosomes’ – indicating the person is biologically male.
Rare ‘intersex’ medical conditions, known medically as differences in sex development (DSDs), can also mean that outwardly female individuals can have ‘male’ chromosomes, or vice versa.
The Russia-led International Boxing Association organised that tournament but is no longer recognised by the IOC.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said: “These athletes have competed many times before over many years, they didn’t suddenly turn up – they competed in Tokyo.
“The federation needs to create rules to make sure there is fairness, but at the same time it needs to allow everyone who wants to take part to participate. It’s a difficult balance.”
“At the end of the day the experts in each sport are the people who work in it. If there is a huge advantage then it is clearly not acceptable, but that decision has to be taken at that level.”
Both Khalifa and Lin competed at the delayed Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. Lin is a two-time winner at the Asian Women’s Amateur Boxing Championships.
The IOC said all boxers in Paris “will comply with the eligibility and entry rules of the competition”.
This controversy arose following the famous case of Caster Semenya.
Semenya, a South African middle-distance runner, has a condition that causes her body to produce higher levels of testosterone than women naturally do.
She won gold in the 800m at the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Rio Olympics, but was unable to compete at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics because World Athletics had then introduced new rules independently of the IOC.
But, upon being allowed to compete at the Olympics, Khalifa beat Carini for 46 seconds, breaking his nose, and the Italian then gave up.
A tearful Carini, who had been told by friends, family and the Italian government not to step into the ring, said: “It hurt me a lot.
“I’m so sad because I’m a warrior but I can’t fight anymore. I’ve never taken a punch like that.”
Khalif will face Anna Luca Hamori in the quarter-finals tomorrow. But the 23-year-old Hungarian roared: “I will win.
“I am not afraid. If he is a man, it will be a great victory for me.”
The IOC retaliated by threatening to exclude boxing from the World Cup. next He said he would not compete at the Olympics if he could not recover his condition – and insisted eligibility rules would not be changed in Paris.
He added: “All athletes participating in this Paris boxing tournament comply with the eligibility and entry rules of the competition.”
“The gender and age of athletes is based on their passports.”
Full statement from the IOC and Paris 2024 Boxing Unit
A look at the full statement released by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Paris 2024 boxing unit…
Every individual has the right to play sports without any discrimination.
All athletes participating in the Olympic Games Paris 2024 boxing tournament must comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry rules, as well as all applicable medical regulations set out by the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit (PBU). As in previous Olympic boxing competitions, athletes’ gender and age are based on their passports.
These rules also apply during the qualification period, which includes the boxing tournaments at the 2023 European Games, Asian Games, Pan American Games and Pacific Games, the 2023 ad hoc African qualifying tournament in Dakar (SEN) and the two world qualifying tournaments held in Busto Arsizio (ITA) and Bangkok (THA) in 2024, which involved a total of 1,471 different boxers from 172 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), the Boxing Refugee Team and individual neutral athletes and included over 2,000 qualification bouts.
The PBU used the Tokyo 2020 boxing rules as a baseline to create its rules for Paris 2024. This was aimed at minimising the impact on athletes’ preparations and guaranteeing continuity between Olympic Games. These Tokyo 2020 rules were based on the post-Rio 2016 rules that were in place before the IOC’s suspension of the International Federation of Boxing in 2019 and withdrawal of its recognition in 2023.
We have seen misleading information in reports about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Both athletes have been competing in international boxing competitions in the women’s category for several years, including the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, the International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships and IBA-sanctioned tournaments.
Both these athletes were victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. At the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process.
According to the IBA minutes available on their website, this decision was initially taken only by the IBA Secretary General and CEO. The IBA Board only later confirmed it and only then requested that a procedure to be followed in similar cases in the future be established and reflected in the IBA Regulations. The minutes also state that the IBA should “establish a clear procedure on gender testing”.
The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any due process – especially considering that these athletes had been participating in top-level competition for many years.
Such an approach is contrary to good governance.
Eligibility rules must not be changed during an ongoing competition, and any rule changes must follow fair procedures and be based on scientific evidence.
The IOC is committed to protecting the human rights of all athletes participating in the Olympic Games in accordance with the Olympic Charter, the IOC Code of Conduct and the IOC Strategic Framework on Human Rights. The IOC is saddened by the mistreatment of two athletes currently being treated.
The IOC withdrew IBA’s recognition in 2023 after a suspension in 2019. The withdrawal was confirmed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). See the IOC’s statement following the decision.
The IOC has made it clear that in order for boxing to be included in the sports programme of the LA28 Olympic Games it needs to build a consensus among the national boxing federations on a new international federation.
