Paris Olympics: IOC condemns boxers’ gender tests as ‘not legitimate’

PARIS — The International Olympic Committee has condemned and dismissed chromosome tests taken by the International Boxing Association in 2022 and 2023 that disqualified boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu-ting from international competition.

Both Khelif and Lin continue to fight in the 2024 Olympics, with both supporters and critics — including from within the Olympic community — increasing in volume.

On Saturday, 3 Wire Sports reported that the IBA had sent a letter to the IOC in June 2023 indicating that Khelif’s “DNA was that of a male consisting of XY chromosomes,” and included the lab reports from that testing.

Sunday morning, IOC spokesman Mark Adams acknowledged receipt of the IBA’s letter but condemned its contents. “The tests themselves, the process of the tests, the ad hoc nature of the tests, are not legitimate,” Adams said. “I’m not going to discuss the individual intimate details of athletes in public, and I think it’s pretty disgraceful for those who have leaked that material. … The way that material was shared is against legal, ethical and all other measures.”

Adams declined further comment on “a letter that was sent, the testing, the method of the testing, the idea of the testing, which happened kind of overnight. None of it is legitimate, and therefore doesn’t deserve any response, particularly not in detail.”

The letter arrived just days before the IOC stripped the IBA of its recognition as boxing’s organizing body over what the IOC has said were concerns about finances, judging and other improprieties. The IBA has continued to criticize the IOC on a range of issues, including the “inconsistent application of eligibility criteria by other sporting organizations, including those overseeing the Olympic Games,” the IBA said in a July 31 statement.

“The IOC’s differing regulations on these matters,” the statement continued, “in which IBA is not involved, raise serious questions about both competitive fairness and athletes’ safety.”

However, the IOC appears to be taking the position that any test, declaration or communication from the IBA is, in effect, fruit from a poisoned tree.

“There’s a whole range of reasons why we won’t deal with this,” Adams said. “Partly confidentiality, partly medical issues, partly that there was no basis for the test in the first place, and partly data sharing of this is also highly against the rules, international rules.”

Adams also sharply criticized the IBA as an organization. “Is it fair and right that two individuals should be targeted in this way and we should take decisions in an arbitrary manner based on arbitrary decisions that have come before by a federation that, I will remind you, has been completely discredited?” he said.

“If you really believe,” he added, “that we should take anything that they say or anything they send us with any grain of truth, then I think … one would be sadly mistaken.”

The IOC has replaced the IBA’s administration with a temporary governing body. Boxing’s participation in the 2028 Games in Los Angeles is by no means guaranteed, and the regulatory uncertainty is a key reason why.

On a larger scale, the IOC has continually insisted that both boxers are women, by both biology and documentation. “We have two boxers who were born as woman [sic], been raised as woman, who have passports as a woman, and who have competed for many years as woman,” IOC president Thomas Bach said Saturday. “This is legally the definition of a woman. There was never any doubt about them being a woman.”

The IOC has relied heavily on the passport as an ultimate determinant of an athlete’s gender, but Adams allowed, in response to a question from Yahoo Sports, that there is a possibility that could change in the future.

“This is an ongoing debate; this is not just in boxing,” Adams said. “A lot of federations use the same criteria, and it’s a very difficult one. As we’ve already mentioned, nobody wants to go back to the days of sex testing. I imagine there will be discussion about this.”

For now, Lin and Khelif will continue to fight. Indeed, Lin guaranteed herself a medal when she defeated Bulgaria’s Svetlana Staneva by unanimous decision just minutes before the IOC news conference began. Khelif, also guaranteed a medal, will fight Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng on Tuesday in one of two women’s 66kg semifinals.

The questions of fairness, inclusivity and safety will continue to swirl, now and for years to come.

“This isn’t a subject where there’s a simple black-and-white answer,” Adams said. “Should someone, could someone come up with a scientific consensus, then we would be happy to work on that and to work with that consensus. Unfortunately, as you’ve seen over the past few days, there isn’t a consensus.”