The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recently announced that two boxers, previously disqualified from last year’s World Championships due to failing gender eligibility tests, are now cleared to compete in the ongoing 2024 Paris Olympics.
Algerian amateur boxer Imane Khelif faced disqualification just hours before her gold medal match at the women’s World Championships in New Delhi last year, having failed a testosterone (Hyperandrogenism) level test mandated by the International Boxing Association (IBA).
Similarly, Taiwan’s double world champion, Lin Yu Ting, was stripped of her bronze medal at the same event due to gender eligibility issues.
During that period, IBA president Umar Kremlev revealed that the boxers had “XY chromosomes.” The World Championships, organized by the IBA — a federation now stripped of IOC recognition — highlighted the ongoing controversy over qualification standards.
IOC Verifies Boxers’ Compliance With Competition Eligibility Rules
The IOC recently issued an official statement declaring that all athletes competing in the boxing tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games unequivocally meet the competition’s stringent eligibility and entry criteria.
Furthermore, these athletes meet all applicable medical regulations, ensuring a fair and standardized contest in alignment with international standards.
“All athletes participating in the boxing tournament of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations in accordance with rules 1.4 and 3.1 of the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit.
“The PBU endeavored to restrict amendments to minimize the impact on athletes’ preparation and guaranteeing consistency between Olympic Games.”
[h/t Independent]
Section 3.1 of these regulations mandates that all boxers must present a medical certificate, duly stamped and signed by an authorized medical professional, issued within the past three months.
Following the IOC’s clarification, Khelif is set to compete against Italy’s Angela Carini in a welterweight bout on Thursday. Meanwhile, Lin will face either Marcelat Sakobi from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Sitora Turdibekova from Uzbekistan in the featherweight division on Friday.
The situation appears reminiscent of the controversy surrounding middle-distance runner Caster Semenya, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who was made to undergo sex testing following her victory at the 2009 World Championships.
The South African was cleared to return the following year, with reports later revealing that Semenya has the intersex condition 5α-Reductase 2 deficiency, which results in her natural testosterone levels sitting in the average male range.
The 33-year-old has been unable to participate since new World Athletics rules in 2019 prevented athletes with certain sex development disorders from competing in 400m, 800m, and 1500m events in the female classification unless they take medication to reduce testosterone.
