International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach on Friday said that women must be encouraged to take part in women's events at the Olympics. Bach's response comes amid controversy surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khalif, a boxer who had failed gender eligibility and testosterone tests and has reached the gold medal round in the women's 66 kg boxing at the ongoing marquee event. Speaking at the press conference, Bach said that women should be allowed to be a part of womens' events and also talked about how the boxing does not use sex tests anymore due to human rights reasons.
"We had so-called sex tests until 1999, and then science told us that they were not reliable anymore, that it does not work as they used to work with regard to the chromosomes and other measurements. We were also told that these kinds of tests are and can be against human rights because they are too intrusive. Then the new system was developed in great agreement with everybody. And I think this is since 1999 or 2000 that this system has been working. Therefore, our decision is very clear. Women must be allowed to take part in women's-competitions," said Bach.
Khalif will be competing for a gold medal in the final of the women's 66 kg boxing at the ongoing Paris Olympics.
Khalif, who was banned from competing in world championships following failures in testosterone and gender eligibility tests, achieved a controversial win over Italy's Angela Carini within just 46 seconds after her opponent quit in the opening round.
Now in the semifinals, she defeated Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand by 5-0, via win by points.
Imane will be battling China's Yang Liu for the top prize on August 10.
The win over Carini drew adverse comments from many prominent people like JK Rowling and Elon Musk who took to social media questioning the gender of Khelif.
Just before her gold medal bout in the International Boxing Association (IBA) Women's Championships held in New Delhi last year, Khelif was disqualified as she had failed to meet IBA's eligibility criteria. She was not allowed to compete due to elevated testosterone levels, as per ESPN.
But she was allowed to compete in the Paris Olympics by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) task force, which is running past two Olympic boxing events as IBA has been banned from the past two years from the Olympics due to governance issues, lack of financial transparency and instances of corruption in judging and refereeing.
IOC defended the rights of Khelif and Lin Yu-ting, another boxer under scrutiny due to failing an unspecified eligibility requirement in a biochemical test, to compete in the Olympics.
Replying to the controversy, the IOC said on Thursday in a statement, "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 set by the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit (PBU). As with previous Olympic boxing competitions, the gender and age of the athletes are based on their passports."
"These rules also applied during the qualification period, including the boxing tournaments of the 2023 European Games, Asian Games, Pan American Games and Pacific Games, the ad hoc 2023 African qualifying tournament in Dakar (SEN) and two world qualifying tournaments held in Busto Arsizio (ITA) and Bangkok (THA) in 2024, which involved a total of 1,471 different boxers from 172 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), the Boxing Refugee Team and Individual Neutral Athletes, and featured over 2,000 qualification bouts," the IOC statement read.
The IOC said that the athletes in question had been subjects of an arbitrary decision by the International Boxing Association earlier.
"We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The two athletes have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women's category, including the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships and IBA-sanctioned tournaments. These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process," the IOC said.
"According to the IBA minutes available on their website, this decision was initially taken solely by the IBA Secretary General and CEO. The IBA Board only ratified it afterwards and only subsequently requested that a procedure to follow in similar cases in the future be established and reflected in the IBA regulations. The minutes also say that the IBA should "establish a clear procedure on gender testing. The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure - especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years. Such an approach is contrary to good governance," the IOC added.
The IOC said it was committed to protecting the human rights of all athletes participating in the Olympic Games as per the Olympic Charter, the IOC Code of Ethics and the IOC Strategic Framework on Human Rights. The IOC further said it was saddened by the abuse that the two athletes are currently receiving, the release added.
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