International Olympics Committee President Says He Lacks a ‘Scientifically Solid System’ to ‘Identify Men and Women’

International Olympics Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach told reporters on Friday that he lacks a “scientifically solid system” to tell a man from a woman as gender controversy continues to buffet the 2024 Games.

Bach was asked if the IOC would commit to reviewing the guidelines that allowed two boxers who had previously failed International Boxing Association (IBA) gender tests to box as women in the Paris Games.

“We have said from the very beginning, if somebody is presenting us a scientifically solid system how to identify men and women, we are the first ones to do it,” Bach said. “We do not like this uncertainty. We do not like it for the overall situation for nobody.

In that case, Bach added, “So we would be more than pleased to look into it.”

“So, we would be more than pleased to look into it. But what is not possible is that somebody is saying, you know, ‘this is not a woman’ just by looking at somebody or by falling prey to a defamation campaign by not a credible organization.” 

The tests that the IOC discounted were conducted by the International Boxing Association, which reportedly tested for chromosomes, at least in part.

In 2023, the 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.

Many feel that anyone with male chromosomes should not be fighting as a woman, whether they are “intersex” or not. The Olympics, though, have not subscribed to that position. Last week, IOC spokesman Mark Adams insisted that if an athlete’s passport had “female” marked, that was all the ICO needed to allow them to compete with women.

Several researchers have worked toward such a definition, of course, including David J Handelsman.

Bach’s claim that he lacks a “solid” Scientific method to tell a man from a woman was a lightning rod for castigation on social media:

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