Every person has the right to practise sport without discrimination.

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) (please find all applicable rules here). As with previous Olympic boxing competitions, the gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport.

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 PBU used the Tokyo 2020 boxing rules as a baseline to develop its regulations for Paris 2024. This was to minimise the impact on athletes’ preparations and guarantee consistency between Olympic Games. These Tokyo 2020 rules were based on the post-Rio 2016 rules, which were in place before the suspension of the boxing International Federation by the IOC in 2019 and the subsequent withdrawal of its recognition in 2023.

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.

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.

Eligibility rules should not be changed during ongoing competition, and any rule change must follow appropriate processes and should be based on scientific evidence.

The IOC is 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 is saddened by the abuse that the two athletes are currently receiving.

The IBA’s recognition was withdrawn by the IOC in 2023 following its suspension in 2019. The withdrawal of recognition was confirmed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). See the IOC’s statement following the ruling.

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.

What’s Going On With the Two Women Boxers Who “Failed” a Gender Test
They’ve both been cleared to compete in the Olympics, and anti-trans activists are furious—even though the women aren’t trans.
BY CHRISTINA CAUTERUCCI
AUG 01, 202412:39 PM

Two women boxers will be allowed to compete in the Paris Olympics despite being disqualified from the 2023 World Championships for failing to meet sex-testing standards, the International Olympic Committee announced Monday. The news should have been no big deal—it was simply the IOC following its own protocol. Instead, it was met with anger, fearmongering, and smears from journalists and advocates who want to keep trans people out of sports.

Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan—neither of whom is transgender—competed in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and have won medals at previous world boxing tournaments. But last year, the International Boxing Association, the governing body for the sport, disqualified Khelif and Lin during the tournament. According to an IOC database, Khelif was removed from the 2023 championships just hours before she was set to compete for the gold medal because “her elevated levels of testosterone failed to meet the eligibility criteria.” Lin competed, and even won the bronze in the tournament, but the IBA took it back after she was found ineligible, “based on the results of a biochemical test” that likely found high testosterone levels or chromosomal variance.

So why the different treatment at the Olympics? The IOC and the IBA have different medical standards for competitors. The two institutions parted ways in 2019, after the IOC stripped the IBA of its Olympic status amid concerns about its integrity, finances, and governance. The IBA president at the time, Uzbekistan’s Gafur Rakhimov, had incurred U.S. sanctions for his alleged participation in the heroin trade and in a Eurasian crime syndicate. The IOC was also wary of the association’s dependence on funding from Gazprom, the Russian state energy firm. (The IBA has since dropped Gazprom as a sponsor.) Since the split, the IBA has taken on a new president, Umar Kremlev, who has accused Khelif and Lin of “trying to fool their colleagues and pretend to be women.”

But the IBA is no longer responsible for running the qualifying matches that lead up to the Olympics—the IOC does that, and it has found that Khelif and Lin are eligible competitors. “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,” the IOC said in a statement.

[...]

Hmmm 🤔 who benefits from this US media storm?

The IBA isn’t recognized by the IOC (itself corrupt) so this appears to be a part of the squabble between the two.

Khelif is a woman and always has been.