The International Olympic Committee cautioned against creating a “witch hunt” over women’s boxing amid an escalating uproar over what one female Olympic boxing champion decried as “men fighting against women.”
Committee spokesperson Mark Adams insisted at a press conference Wednesday that two Olympic boxers — Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting — are “women,” despite being disqualified from last year’s women’s world championships for reportedly failing a gender test.
“I think we all have a responsibility by the way to try to dial down this and not turn it into some kind of witch hunt,” Mr. Adams said. “These are regular athletes who have competed for many years in boxing. They are entirely eligible. They are women on their passports.”
His warnings came with opposition rising ahead of Khelif’s opening fight Thursday against Italy’s Angela Carini in the 66 kg weight category.
Speaking out against the IOC’s decision was two-time Olympic boxing champion Claressa Gwoat Shields, who won gold at the 2012 and 2016 games in the women’s welterweight class.
“So they got men fighting against women in the Olympics @Olympics boxing!” said Shields on X. “I wouldn’t have stood for no stuff like that! That is so heartbreaking to the women who have to have their dreams ruined by a man.”
So they got men fighting against women in the Olympics @Olympics boxing ! I wouldn’t have stood for no stuff like that! That is so heartbreaking to the women who have to have their dreams ruined by a man. Sad asf!
— Claressa Gwoat Shields (@Claressashields) July 30, 2024
Lin is slated to compete Friday in the 57 kg weight category against Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova in the preliminary rounds.
Among the other boxers expressing their displeasure on social media was “Iceman” John Scully, who fought for the IBF light-heavyweight world title and has trained multiple world-champion professionals since hanging up his own gloves.
“I hope you psychopaths are happy now that men are allowed to compete as women in the Olympic boxing,” he said, emphasizing what the sport is in all capital letters: “fighting.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” added an incredulous Nick Kisner, a former Maryland cruiserweight champion.
“If I was the girls in that weight class, I would have refused to compete in the tournament, to where it was just him left to compete by himself. Then they would have gotten the point,” he added.
Stoking concerns about the fights was viral footage of Khelif pummeling Mexican woman Brianda Tamara Cruz Sandoval at the International Boxing Association’s 2022 Golden Belt Series in Guadalajara, Mexico.
After Khelif was disqualified from the IBA Women’s World Championships in March 2023 for reportedly testing positive for XY chromosomes, Cruz said she had never experienced such a beatdown.
“When I fought with her I felt very out of my reach, her blows hurt me a lot,” said Cruz in the post dated March 26, 2023, as translated by Google. “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 realized.”
Out of all the controversy in the past few days regarding the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
— Liam Darkholme (@FrenchToastHK) July 30, 2024
This should be of most concern.
Trans Woman (aka Male pretender) fights and beats up a Real woman in a sanctioned boxing match at the olympics#Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/Gy46DE31ut
Pushing back was the Algerian Olympic and Sports Committee, which denounced “with the greatest firmness the malicious and unethical attacks directed against our distinguished athlete, Imane Kehlif, by certain foreign media.”
“These attempts at defamation, based on lies, are completely unfair, especially at a crucial time when she is preparing for the Olympic Games, the peak of her career,” said the statement. “The COA has taken all necessary measures to protect our champion.”
Algerian Football Media compared Khelif to Olympic gold medalist Caster Semenya, a South African runner who unsuccessfully challenged the 2018 World Athletics ban from elite women’s competitions of athletes with a Disorder of Sexual Development known as 46 XY.
“We recall that our boxer was deemed ineligible to participate in the last boxing world championship due to ‘too high’ testosterone levels, like the South African athletics star Caster Semenya: excellence is disturbing. The excellence of African women is disturbing,” said AFM on X.
Jon Pike, a professor at the U.K.’s Open University, speculated that Khelif may also have 46 XY chromosomes, meaning the individual has male-level testosterone and possibly ambiguous genitalia at birth.
“Allowing male advantage into female sport unquestionably undermines both fairness and, where appropriate, safety,” he said on X. “And this is precisely what the @IOCmedia is licencing. This is unethical.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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