Outrage over Olympic boxers who failed gender test competing

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The International Olympic Committee seemingly has picked a fight with some very tough customers.

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The IOC’s decision on Tuesday to allow Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting to compete in the Paris Summer Games has drawn significant backlash from several high-profile boxers.

Khelif and Lin failed to meet gender eligibility tests at last year’s women’s world boxing championships in New Delhi, prompting the International Boxing Association to disqualify them.

But they have been cleared to compete in the women’s 66kg and women’s 57kg tournaments in Paris this week, the IOC confirmed on Tuesday.

The president of the IBA alleged that the boxers’ chromosome tests came back as XY, which typically is a male trait.

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“Based on DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to trick their colleagues into posing as women,” IBA president Umar Kremlev told Russia’s Tass news agency at the time. “According to the results of the tests, it was proved that they have XY chromosomes. Such athletes were excluded from competition.”

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According to Reuters, Khelif also was found to have a high level of testosterone.

Khelif and Lin both have only competed as women and there’s no indication that either identifies as transgender.

The two boxers were allowed to participate at the Games due to less strict gender eligibility rules.

“Obviously I am not going to comment on individuals,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said told the Guardian.

“That’s really invidious and unfair. But I would just say 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.”

The ruling sparked outrage on social media and from fellow boxers.

Women’s boxing world champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist Claressa Shields said that she wouldn’t stand for competing against opponents who failed such tests.

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“So, they got men fighting against women in the Olympics boxing! I wouldn’t have stood for no stuff like that!” Shields posted on X.

“That is so heartbreaking to the women who have to have their dreams ruined by a man.”

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Australian boxer Caitlin Parker, who is competing in the 75kg division, said that Khelif and Lin’s inclusion could be “incredibly dangerous.”

“I don’t agree with them being allowed to compete in sport, especially combat sports,” Parker said.

“It can be incredibly dangerous. I don’t agree with it.

Mexico’s Brianda Tamara Cruz Sandoval fought against Khelif in 2022 and says she had never experienced punches with the force of the ones her opponent threw, saying “I don’t think I had ever felt like that in my 13 years as a boxer, nor in my sparring with men.”

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“When I fought her, I felt very out of my depth,” Tamara told the Telegraph. “Her blows hurt me a lot. Thank God that day I got out of the ring safely and it’s good that they finally realized.”

Khelif is scheduled to compete against Italy’s Angela Carini on Thursday while Lin is set to fight Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova on Friday.

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