Two boxers who were banned from the world championships last year for being deemed biologically male have now been cleared to compete at the upcoming Olympics as women.
Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan were disqualified from the Women’s World Boxing Championships in March 2023 in New Delhi, India after a series of DNA tests raised concerns over their biological sex.
Umar Kremlev, the president of the International Boxing Association (IBA), claimed at the time that the tests had proven the athletes, including Khelif and Yu-Ting, had ‘XY chromosomes’ and were “trying to fool their colleagues and pretend to be women.”
Kremlev said that a series of DNA tests had been conducted, with the results exposing “athletes who were trying to fool their colleagues and pretend to be women”.
However, the IBA has since been stripped of the right to run Olympic boxing competitions, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has now determined that both Khelif and Yu-Ting meet the eligibility criteria to compete at the upcoming Paris Olympics.
Scientific research has also found that the average punching power is 162% greater in those who have gone through male puberty compared to females,
An IOC spokesperson stated that “all athletes participating in the boxing tournament comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations, in accordance with the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit.”
This decision has sparked outrage among some in the boxing community. Northern Ireland great was appalled with the situation, while former American Olympian Nancy Hogshead claimed that “gender ideology will get women KILLED.”
As per Taiwan news, there was an abnormality in Lin’s gender test. As for Khelif, there’s also reports out there that she had an ‘abnormal’ testosterone level. The IBA itself provided no elaboration beyond saying they were
Hogshead argued that the performance gap between men and women in boxing is too significant to allow biological males to compete against females.
The Algerian Olympic Committee had previously claimed that Khelif’s disqualification from the world championships was part of a “conspiracy” to prevent them from winning a gold medal, and that “medical reasons” were behind her high testosterone levels.
As the debate continues, Khelif, a welterweight, is set to box Italy’s Angela Carini on Thursday, while Yu-Ting, a featherweight, will be in action on Friday at the Paris Olympics.
The defenders are claiming that both of these boxers have female chromosomes and secondary gender characteristics however that they like suffer from hypogonadism and have naturally higher levels of testosterone. It’s unclear at this time what the actual medical reality behind both cases is.
