Two ‘women’ boxers, who were disqualified by International Boxing for being male, cleared to compete at Paris Olympics
Athletes disqualified from 2023 Women's World Championships for having "XY chromosomes" will compete in the Olympic women's boxing competition.
Follow Us
Paris Olympics finds itself in yet another controversy, this time with XY Chromosomes (Source: Instagram/X)
Paris 2024 will feature two boxers. who was on the bar last year for failing to meet gender eligibility requirements for women’s competition. Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting will compete for a medal in the women’s – 66 kg and – 57 kg brackets at the Paris 2024 Olympics. However, in 2023, both faced much controversy for XY chromosomes present in their stream.
Khelif and Lin suffered disqualifications at the Women’s World Championships in March 2023. The International Boxing Association (@IBA_Boxing) had said they failed to meet eligibility criteria. Per Agence France Presse (AFP.news ›barrons.com/news) Imane Khelif had a high level of testosterone in her system. Algerian Ennahar TV had reported on some unrest thinking this was some agenda push. But later, Taiwan’s double world champion Lin Yu-ting also lost her bronze for not meeting the IBA criteria.
Based on DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to trick their colleagues into posing as women...According to the results of the tests, it was proved that they have XY chromosomes. Such athletes were excluded from competition...IBA president Umar Kremlin via Official Press release; H/T: foxnews.com/sports. Additional reporting by Osama Khairy. for @reuters in Cairo
Svetlana Kamenova-Staneva of Bulgaria, who lost to Lin in the quarterfinal, took the bronze. Per Russia’s Tass New Agency, there was much uproar in her camp. IBA president Umar Kremlev later explained the decision. The International Olympic Committee cut ties with IBA in 2023, citing concerns about reliance on Russia’s Gazprom. Now, despite “a series of DNA-tests” for their 10-day 2023 event, IOC listings have Khelif facing Italy’s Angela Carini on August 1. Lin Yu-Ting is slated for the next day.
REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) first noted the matter, based on iba.sport. Since transgender boxing still is a viral yet contentious topic in the combat sports sphere, many have called for their ban from the Games. Olympic boxing at the Paris 2024 Olympics runs through August 10, with a new set of IOC rules.
What’s at stake: A Fighter account
Prelims happened at Roland-Garros Stadium. Featherweight (57kg), lightweight (60kg), and welterweight (69kg) medal rounds find themselves up north in Arena Paris Nord in Villepinte. Khelif fights in between (Quarterfinals) at 5 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. ET. Full live streaming coverage comes at the courtesy of NBCOlympics.com.
Broadening the scope – after Khelif failed the IBA eligibility criteria due to XY chromosomes, a female boxer came forward to discuss her experience fighting after the DQ. Here’s what Mexican boxer Brianda Tamara wrote on X:
When I fought with her I felt very out of my depth, Her blows hurt me a lot, I don’t think I had ever felt like that in my 13 years as a boxer, nor in my sparring with men...Thank God that day I got out of the ring safely, and it’s good that they finally realized.Brianda Tamara via X (@BriandaTamara)
With IBA out of the fold, who DQed them, there are new, more inclusive rules to follow. Turns out, Imane Khelif was a hard-hitting reckoning for her. Will it be the same at the 2024 Olympics? Will be the same for Lin Yu-Ting, who has 5 gold medals in women’s boxing tournaments? Only time will tell.
Boxing Unbound: A Look into IOC’s Choice to End sex-verification
There are no blanket Olympic rules on transgender inclusivity or testosterone testing pools. In the FAQ for the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit, there aren’t any gender eligibility guidelines. The new unit came to be after the IOC cut ties, forming its own ad-hoc unit and qualification system for the Games. Subsequently, it’s very open to interpretation for particular nations, institutions, and commissions.
USA Boxing’s new transgender athlete policy allows for transgender women over 18 in the female category if they have genital reassignment surgery and also submit to the testing pools. But unlike pro sports, the ad-hoc inclusivity set has many mingling interpretations of boxers with XY chromosomes.
Neither boxer has explicitly identified as transgender. But both believably have Differences Of Sexual Development (DSD), — meaning both male and female genitalia. Despite the mostly negative opinions on such, a boxer is known for putting their skill-to-skill mettle to the test. So, both athletes will compete in the women’s events at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Hence, women’s boxers and their threshold to perform at par will be tested. It’s not like others are to mercilessly face HW boxing icons in blood matches. But, when their bouts do happen, Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting are sure to catch some attention.
In case you missed it:
- “If born with a di*k,” – Errol Spence Jr gets EXPLICIT about thoughts on tr*nsgenders in boxing
- “I don’t like that” – NBA champion Matt Barnes explains why tr*nsgender women shouldn’t play in WNBA
Stay Updated!
Dibaas.M
(1334 Articles Published)