Advocacy group, The Countess, has called for the “immediate resumption of sex testing by cheek swab ” in order to ensure the “protection of the female category at the Paris Olympics”, as controversy continues regarding two boxers in the games.
Two Olympic boxers – Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting – qualified to compete in Paris by coming through events organised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Both had been disqualified from a previous world boxing event in New Delhi in March 2023 organised by the International Boxing Association (IBA) after it was claimed that testing showed they had XY chromosomes.
The IBA, which governs amateur boxing, was stripped of its Olympic recognition in 2023 after the IOC said there was issues around “financial transparency” and “fairness in the appointment of judges and referees”.
The IOC has defended its decision to include the two boxers, saying that the Tokyo 2020 boxing rules (enforced at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and the related qualifying tournaments) were used as a baseline to develop its regulations.”
However, controversy and criticism continued to grow with famed Irish boxer, Barry McGuigan, criticising the decision to allow the two athletes to compete in the female category.
“It’s shocking that they were actually allowed to get this far, what is going on?” he asked.
Some commentators questioned why the IOC were not carrying out sex testing, though it was acknowledged that it was unclear as to whether the two boxers had a disorder of sexual development.
The IBA was always sex-based. The Olympics used to be too. Until 2000 sex testing kept men out of women’s events. Then it was dropped.
— Sex Matters (@SexMattersOrg) July 30, 2024
This is the 2021 IOC Framework in action. This is what “no presumed advantage” looks like. It’s not “inclusion”, it’s exclusion of women. And… pic.twitter.com/bpVC9iNL1x
Sorcha Nic Lochlainn, sports spokeswoman for The Countess, called for sex testing at the games, saying: “Two boxers who failed sex testing by the International Boxing Association have been allowed to compete in the women’s divisions at this year’s Olympics”. She said that male competitors in a female competition would have “higher levels of testosterone and male body development.”
“It is outrageous that two athletes deemed ineligible for the Women’s World Boxing Championships in March of 2023 are now able to self-declare eligibility for the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee is on the one hand celebrating the first ‘gender equal’ Olympics and on the other undermining the very basis of
the female category. They are making a mockery of themselves.”
Mark Adams, the IOC’s spokesman, defended the decision saying: “These boxers are entirely eligible – they are women on their passports. He added that: “It’s not helpful to start stigmatising people like this. We all have a responsibility not to turn it into some kind of witch-hunt”.
In response to his statement, Barry McGuigan said that Mr Adams “wouldn’t know a left hook from a fish hook”.
The Countess said the primary issue was one of male advantage in sports. “The IOC delegated eligibility criteria for women’s sport to the individual sport governing bodies. The IBA has a female-only policy and previously disqualified the two boxers because they were found to be male. However, because the IBA are not overseeing boxing at the Paris Olympics, the IOC has set up its own unit for boxing eligibility and allowed these two male boxers enter the women’s category,” Ms Nic Lochlainn said.
“The IOC guidelines issued to individual federations around transgender inclusion suggest that there be ‘no presumption of advantage’ for males who declare they are women,” Nic Lochlainn said, “This is clearly ludicrous and has been proven over and over again to be false. Although the absolute male advantage varies by sport, it is clear that this advantage cannot be removed. Allowing males into female sport undermines the very reason for the existence of the category in the first place. It is akin to allowing twenty-year-olds to identify as under twelves. There is just no way to ever make it fair.”
“In boxing, it is clearly unsafe as well for the women who have worked so hard to qualify. A man’s punch is up to 160% more powerful than a woman’s. There could be serious injuries resulting from the IOC decision. We are calling on them to instigate immediate review and remove these boxers from the female category,” she said.
Regarding sex testing, Nic Lochlainn explained that this used to be done by a simple cheek swab, but the testing was stopped before the 2000 Olympics. She went on to say “We are calling for resumption of sex testing of all athletes who enter the female category, and the removal of any athlete that is found to be male. The category exists to allow women and girls to compete fairly and safely and should be protected.”
The IBA last night issued a statement in relation to the controversy saying that “on 24 March 2023, IBA disqualified athletes Lin Yu-ting and Imane Khelif from the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships New Delhi 2023.”
“This disqualification was a result of their failure to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition, as set and laid out in the IBA Regulations. This decision, made after a meticulous review, was extremely important and necessary to uphold the level of fairness and utmost integrity of the competition,” the statement said.
“Point to note, the athletes did not undergo a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognized test, whereby the specifics remain confidential. This test conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors.”
“The decision made by IBA on 24 March 2023, was subsequently ratified by the IBA Board of Directors on 25 March 2023,” it added.
The IBA said that the disqualification was based on two tests conducted on both athletes at the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in Istanbul 2022 and the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi 2023.
They added that Lin Yu-ting did not appeal the IBA’s decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), “thus rendering the decision legally binding” – and that “Imane Khelif initially appealed the decision to CAS but withdrew the appeal during the process, also making the IBA decision legally binding”.
“Our Committees have rigorously reviewed and endorsed the decision made during the World Championships. While IBA remains committed to ensuring competitive fairness in all of our events, we express concern over the inconsistent application of eligibility criteria by other sporting organizations, including those overseeing the Olympic Games. The IOC’s differing regulations on these matters, in which IBA is not involved, raise serious questions about both competitive fairness and athletes’ safety,” they said.
However, the IOC’s spokesperson Mark Adams told the media in Paris this week that: “Everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules. They are women in their passports and it is stated that is the case”.
“They are eligible by the rules of the federation, which was set in 2016, and which worked for Tokyo too, to compete as women, which is what they are. And we fully support that,” he added.