The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was forced to issue a correction on Saturday after its president apparently spread false information about two boxing contestants who have been allowed to compete against female opponents despite allegedly having male chromosomes.
In a press conference, IOC President Thomas Bach defended the Olympic participation of Imane Khelif, who defeated Italy’s Angela Carini in just 46 seconds, sparking outrage and concern over the Algerian boxer’s involvement, given claims from the Russian-backed International Boxing Association (IBA) that Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting had previously tested as biological males with XY chromosomes.
In 2023, the International Boxing Association (IBA) President Umar Kremlev explained his organization’s decision to disqualify Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting and Algeria’s Imane Khelif from competing in the IBA’s 2023 Women’s World Boxing Championships, according to Russia’s Tass News Agency. “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,” Kremlev said.
However, on Saturday, IOC chief Bach said: “We have two boxers… who were born as women, raised as women, who have passports as women, who have competed for many years as women. And this is a clear definition of a woman.”
Despite declaring that he would not “confuse the two issues,” the IOC head initially said that the situation was not “about the transgender issue” before apparently confusing the issue himself by adding that “this is not a DSD case.”
The IOC was forced to issue a correction to Bach’s comments, saying that he meant to say transgender instead of DSD, or Differences in Sexual Development, a range of rare conditions in which a person’s genitalia do not necessarily match with their chromosomes or hormone levels.
The correction came after Bach suggested the IBA, which barred both Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting from participating in a 2023 women’s boxing tournament, lacks “credibility.” On Saturday, Khelif defeated another female contestant, Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori while Taiwan fighter Lin Yu-Ting won on Friday.
Following the defeat of Carini, who said she bowed out of the match with Khelif to “preserve” her life, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni slammed the IOC for allowing the match to go forward.
“I have been trying to explain for years that some beliefs, taken to the extreme, risk impacting women’s rights. I think that athletes who have male genetic characteristics should not be admitted to women’s competitions but not because they want to discriminate against anyone but to protect the right of female athletes to be able to compete on equal terms,” the Italian premiere said.
The IOC has also faced criticism from the left, with British Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, a member of the left-wing Labour government, describing the match between Khelif and Carini as “extremely uncomfortable viewing”. Labour MP Rosie Duffield added: “This is not ok IOC. Listen to women.”
Despite global backlash, Bach attempted to reframe the conversation, saying that the IOC would not engage in a “politically motivated cultural war” and decried the so-called “hate speech” surrounding the controversy.
“What we see now is that some want to own the definition of who is a woman… And there I can only invite them to come up with a scientific-based new definition of who is a woman. And how can somebody be born, raised, compete and have a passport, as a woman cannot be considered a woman if they are coming up with something, we are ready to listen, we are ready to look into it,” he said.
“But we will not take part in a politically motivated cultural war. And allow me to say that what is going on in this context, in the social media with all this hate speech, with this aggression and abuse, and fuelled by this agenda, is totally unacceptable.”
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