By Zack Pierce and Nicole Auerbach
Aug 5, 2024
PARIS — The International Boxing Association, the organization whose decision to disqualify Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan from the 2023 world championships is at the heart of a firestorm engulfing the Olympic tournament, hosted a news conference on Monday “dedicated to the detailed explanation of the reasons for the disqualification” of the two fighters.
Instead, what followed was a two-hour affair of little explanation, a great deal of obfuscation, and a series of evasive answers to reporters’ questions that did nothing to back up the IBA’s claims that the women should be ineligible to compete in women’s divisions, even though they were both assigned female at birth and identify on official documents as women.
The controversy escalated last week when Khelif’s round-of-16 opponent at the Olympics, Italy’s Angela Carini, quit their bout after just 46 seconds after taking hard punches from Khelif and saying she couldn’t go on.
The unusual and swift ending to such a high-profile fight called extra attention to Khelif and Lin’s disqualifications at the 2023 worlds, an event run by the IBA, an organization backed by the Russian energy giant Gazprom that has been expelled from its association with the International Olympic Committee and the Games themselves.
Khelif and Lin were disqualified in the middle of the 2023 tournament, a few days after Khelif had defeated a Russian boxer, Azaliia Amineva. The IBA said Khelif and Lin were found to have “competitive advantages over other female competitors.”
Khelif said in an interview published Monday by The Associated Press and its video partner SNTV that she feels her best response to the “fierce campaign” against her is to win a gold medal.
“This thing has effects, massive effects. It can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit, and mind,” she said. “And it can divide people. And because of that, I ask them to refrain from bullying.”
On Monday, with a platform to lay out their supposed evidence for the disqualifications, IBA president Umar Kremlev spent most of his time speaking in vague terms about upholding rules, defending democracy and dissatisfaction with IOC president Thomas Bach, while repeatedly criticizing the opening ceremony of the Paris Games.
The expert doctor the IBA brought to the panel — Dr. Ioannis Filippatos, a former chair of the IBA’s medical committee — offered little in medical specifics, saying, at one point, “I don’t want to speak too much medicine to you.”
Asked how anyone could trust the IBA after years of judging scandals, financial corruption and other misdeeds, Chris Roberts, the organization’s secretary general, talked about bureaucratic successes that had little to do with public trust.
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About the closest anyone got to adding detail was when talking about two separate blood tests they said Khelif and Lin underwent, though no documentation of the tests were provided. One test was performed in Istanbul in 2022 and deemed “inconclusive,” Roberts said. A second test was then performed at the world championships in 2023 that led to their subsequent disqualifications.
The IBA officials said the national Olympic committees of Chinese Taipei (the Olympic designation for Taiwan) told them not to disclose private information about any boxers.
Instead, the officials spoke in broad and often contradictory terms about gender, sex and their own tests. Kremlev said the testing showed testosterone levels as high as those for men but that he could not give any proof. The comment contradicted IBA’s official statement last Thursday, in which it stated that “the athletes did not undergo a testosterone examination.” But, repeatedly, IBA officials referred to high testosterone levels at Monday’s news conference.
“We’re not able to disclose the results of any tests,” Roberts said. “But you can read between the lines about where that sits.”
Kremlev said Monday that the IBA would compensate the “women victims” who lost to Khelif and Lin at the Paris Games, saying that they were harmed by the inclusion of the two fighters in the event. He did not express any concern for the mental or physical wellbeing of Khelif and Lin, who have found themselves at the center widespread scorn, though he was asked specifically about them.
Khelif’s coach, Mohamed Chaoua, in an interview with SNTV and the AP, dismissed the IBA’s tests as “worthless.” “They (boxing authorities) did some worthless tests, tests that don’t show anything, the only test that matter is the sexual one, the only test to prove a person is a man or a woman, or trans,” Chaoua said in the interview. “They didn’t (do those tests). They took blood samples and said they found this and that.”
The IOC — which has said that countries that stay loyal to the IBA are risking boxing at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics — has repeatedly defended Khelif and Lin’s inclusion in the Games, saying they meet all eligibility criteria.
GO DEEPERQuestions and answers: The Olympic women’s boxing gender controversy“They are eligible by the rules of the federation which was set in 2016, and which worked for Tokyo too,” where Khelif and Lin also competed, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said last week. “To compete as women, which is what they are. And we fully support that.”
Khelif’s quarterfinal opponent, Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori, added fuel to the controversy before their bout with a series of disparaging social media posts that played into the IBA’s messaging. Their fight went the distance, with Khelif winning by unanimous decision. The two seemed cordial after the fight, but the Hungarian fighter’s camp did not exactly douse the fire in its post-fight comments.
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“We are not afraid of difficult circ*mstances and are ready to fight even among difficult circ*mstances,” said Balázs Fürjes, a Hungarian International Olympic Committee member. “We are proud founding members of the international Olympic family. We are 100 percent convinced that the International Olympic Committee will make the right decisions.”
After beating Hamori, Khelif collapsed to the mat in tears. She told the AP the whole ordeal was weighing on her.
“I couldn’t control my nerves,” Khelif said. “Because after the media frenzy and after the victory, there was a mix of joy and at the same time. I was greatly affected because honestly. It wasn’t an easy thing to go through at all. It was something that harms human dignity. And this is what affected me at the end of the match.”
Nearly two hours into Monday’s news conference, most of the reporters present relocated toward the back of the room, where another Algerian boxer, Roumaysa Boualam, spoke in support of Khelif, her friend. Boualam held the Algerian flag as she called the entire ordeal “disgusting.”
“She will box, and she will fight,” Boualam said. “This is unfair, what’s happened. … We have to support her.”
Khelif (66 kilograms, 145 pounds) and Lin (57 kilograms, 125 pounds) have already clinched medals by making the semifinals in their respective weight classes. Boxing has no bronze medal bout — the semifinal losers each get a bronze and are not asked to fight again.
Khelif fights Tuesday night at Roland Garros, which is converting one of its arenas to a boxing venue with tennis concluded. Lin fights Wednesday night.
(Photo: Richard Pelham / Getty Images)
