How an Olympic boxing dispute embroiled arguments about gender in sport (2024)

The contentious topic of gender in sport has made its way into a debate about how boxing is run at the Olympics, turning a murky administrative fight into the latest stage for combative arguments about how women should be allowed to compete.

Two boxers, Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan, were approved to fight in women’s divisions at the Paris Games under guidance that relied in part on their passports and a medical clearance to determine they could compete.

However, they were disqualified from the 2023 World Championships because the governing body for the event, the International Boxing Association (IBA), said the women had failed a test given late in the tournament that it said showed the boxers had “competitive advantages over other female competitors.”

The International Olympic Committee said Thursday that the world championships were mishandled and that there was no doubt that the athletes, who also competed at the Tokyo Games, were women and should be allowed to compete.

But the issue was seized on quickly online around the start of the Games and magnified even more Thursday when Khelif brutally finished her first fight in 46 seconds, forcing her opponent to quit after being on the wrong end of a flurry of hard punches.

The discourse online and among sports commentators included widespread speculation about the gender classifications of the fighters, even though Olympic officials nationally and internationally have repeatedly identified Khelif and Lin as women and eligible to compete.

Lin, who competes under Chinese Taipei, won her first bout Friday with a relatively quiet unanimous decision. Khelif’s next fight is Saturday.

The dispute between the governing bodies is so fractured and bitter that boxing itself, one of the oldest sports on the Olympic program, is in danger of being removed unless the sport unites under a new global federation for the Los Angeles Games in 2028.

A swift, uncomfortable knockout

Angela Carini of Italy and Khelif met in the round of 16 on Thursday in the 146-pound (66-kilogram) division, their first fight in the tournament. They briefly exchanged punches before Carini put her left hand in the air and walked to her corner just 46 seconds into the bout, an extremely unusual ending to a bout.

The bout was officially scored “Abandon R1.” An abandonment occurs anytime a boxer voluntarily stops fighting or when their corner throws in the towel. This has been the only bout to be finished by abandonment at the Olympics this year.

As the referee raised Khelif’s hand, Carini fell to the mat and cried into her knees. Afterward, Carini said she couldn’t continue boxing with the intense pain she endured from a few of Khelif’s punches.

“I couldn’t carry on,” she said. “I have a big pain in my nose and I said, ‘Stop.’ It’s better to avoid keeping going. My nose started dripping from the first hit.”

Carini added that she did not object to Khelif competing. “I did my job as a boxer, entering the ring and fighting. I didn’t manage to, but I am exiting (the competition) with my head held high and with a broken heart.”

Khelif spoke briefly after the bout, telling reporters: “Difficult for a first fight. Insh’allah for the second fight. I am very prepared because it’s been eight years of preparation.”

“It’s my second Olympic Games after fifth place at Tokyo. I need an Olympic medal here in Paris,” she said.

In comments published Friday by the Italian publication Gazzetta dello Sport, Carini said she felt sorry for Khelif and was not making a statement by not congratulating her after the fight.

“It was not intentional, in fact I apologize to her and to everyone,” Carini said. “I was angry, because my Games had already gone up in smoke. I have nothing against Khelif and on the contrary if I happened to meet her again I would give her a hug.”

Why Khelif and Lin were previously disqualified

Khelif and Lin had made it to the medal rounds of the 2023 World Championships in New Delhi when they were disqualified. Khelif had made a final and Lin had clinched a bronze medal.

Still, they were disqualified two days before the end of the meet, and on Wednesday the IBA said in a statement that they felt the decision was important for the integrity and fairness of the competition. The IBA also described its tests:

“The athletes did not undergo a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognized test, whereby the specifics remain confidential,” the IBA said. “This test conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors.”

The IOC on Thursday criticized the IBA’s handling of the tournament and said Khelif and Lin were not given any due process.

“This decision was initially taken solely by the IBA Secretary General and CEO,” the IOC said, citing minutes of the meeting where the decision was made. “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.”

How Khelif and Lin reached the Olympics

Khelif, 25, and Lin, 28, were cleared to compete at the Olympics on Monday. In a statement at the time, the IOC said it was following rules established by the Paris Boxing Unit, an ad-hoc unit used to organize the tournament for this Olympics.

The rules include medical regulations and guidelines for how boxers are identified. “As with previous Olympic boxing competitions, the gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport,” the IOC said in its statement on Thursday.

Algerian law does not allow people to change their gender on official documents or otherwise, according to Equaldex, a website that tracks LGBTQ laws by country for travelers. Taiwan has more protections for LGBTQ people, including anti-discrimination laws, Equaldex said.

Cho Kuan-ting, a city council member in New Taipei, told the Taipei Times that Lin was registered as female on her birth certificate.

Lin qualified for Paris after winning the Asian Games title in October, and Khelif qualified by winning an African qualifying tournament in September.

At the Tokyo Games, Khelif finished in fifth place in the 132-pound (60-kg) division, and Lin finished in ninth place in the 126-pound (57-kg) division.

Khelif entered Paris with a 9-5 career professional record, with notable losses to two Irish boxers, Kellie Harrington in the 2021 Olympic quarterfinals and Amy Broadhurst in the 2022 world championship finals.

Lin has a pro record of 19-5 and is a three-time world championship medalist and a two-time Asian champion.

What the IOC and others have said

On Tuesday, IOC spokesperson Mark Adams told reporters no personal information about the boxers’ medical histories would be disclosed.

“They’ve been competing in boxing for a very long time,” he said. “They’ve achieved all the eligibility requirements in terms of sex and age. We’re following the rules in place in Tokyo.”

“They are eligible by the rules of the federation which was set in 2016, and which worked for Tokyo too. To compete as women, which is what they are. And we fully support that.”

Broadhurst, the last competitor to defeat Khelif, said Thursday she doesn’t think Khelif “has done anything to ‘cheat.’”

Have a lot of people texting me over Imane Khelif. Personally I don’t think she has done anything to ‘cheat’. I thinks it’s the way she was born & that’s out of her control. The fact that she has been beating by 9 females before says it all.

— Amy Broadhurst (@amybroadhurst12) July 31, 2024

On Wednesday, the Algerian Olympic Committee condemned the commentary around Khelif’s gender as “lies” in a statement to The Associated Press. The committee also called it “unethical targeting and maligning of our esteemed athlete” with “baseless propaganda from certain foreign media outlets,” per the AP.

A governance mess risks Olympic boxing

The IOC has repeatedly said that the IBA no longer has any involvement with the Olympics in part because of a lack of financial transparency from the IBA, about prize money and other support.

Other disputes are tied to the IBA’s governance, its reliance on official Russian support, and the integrity of judging at past events, including the 2016 Olympics.

The IBA, which is financially backed by the Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom, promised to hand out more than $3 million in prize money to fighters and teams in Paris. That led the IOC to issue an ultimatum: Countries who stayed loyal to the IBA could be barred from competing in boxing at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

“This total lack of financial transparency was exactly one of the reasons why the IOC withdrew its recognition of the IBA,” the IOC said in May.

In response to the ultimatum, the IBA called the IOC’s position “an absolute travesty and disgrace.”

“An important reminder to note is that the IBA has never restricted our athletes from any event, we actively support to the fullest, and we continue to do so at all costs,” the IBA said on the same May day. “It appears that the IOC fail to recognize the very same values that we at IBA hold dearly… a clear measure and lack of selfless commitment and integrity that they pontificate.”

The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in June that the IOC’s move was justified, and said that the IBA had not met the requirements of Olympic leaders.

The IOC said Thursday that national boxing organizations need to line up under another worldwide federation.

“The IOC has made it clear that it needs National Boxing Federations to reach a consensus around a new International Federation in order for boxing to be included on the sports programme of the Olympic Games LA28,” the IOC said.

(Photo: David Fitzgerald / Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Mark Puleo is a News Staff Editor at The Athletic. Before joining The Athletic, Mark covered breaking weather news as a digital journalist and front page digital editor with AccuWeather. He is a graduate of Penn State University and its John Curley Center for Sports Journalism. Follow Mark on Twitter @ByMarkPuleo