Two female boxers who were ejected from last year’s Women’s World Boxing Championships after being deemed biologically male will be allowed to compete at the Olympics. Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan were found to have XY chromosomes, which determine a person’s biological sex as male.
The discovery resulted in both boxers being disqualified from last year’s World Championships by the International Boxing Association. The governing body made the controversial decision to conduct DNA tests at the event, which was held in India in March last year.
In spite of the IBA’s ruling, the two boxers will be allowed to compete at the Olympics after being cleared by the International Olympic Committee. The IBA does not have jurisdiction over Olympic boxing, with the IOC taking control without having robust eligibility guidelines on the matter.
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An IOC statement released on Monday read: “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 decision to allow Khelif and Lin to compete at the Olympics is likely to be controversial, with former world champion Barry McGuigan among those to have commented on social media. Taking to X, formerly Twitter, he wrote: “It’s shocking that they were actually allowed to get this far. What is going on?”
IBA president Umar Kremlev said last year that DNA test results exposed ‘athletes who were trying to fool their colleagues and pretend to be women’. He confirmed that multiple boxers had been disqualified in the interests of ‘fairness among athletes and professionalism’.
Khelif was removed from her gold medal bout, with Janjaem Suwannapheng allowed to progress despite losing to the Algerian boxer in the semi-finals. However, the Algerian Olympic Committee disputed the IBA ruling and accused the governing body of conspiring against it.
Brianda Tamara, a Mexican boxer who fought Khelif at last year’s World Championships, described her punching power in a post on social media.
She wrote: “When I fought with her I felt very out of my depth. Her blows hurt me a lot. I don’t think I had ever felt like that in my 13 years as a boxer, nor in my sparring with men. Thank God that day I got out of the ring safely, and it’s good that they finally realised.”
Khelif and Lin are due to begin their Olympic campaigns later this week, with the former competing in the welterweight division and the latter in the featherweight category.
