Boxing at the Olympics: the row over sexual differences

Imane Khelif lands a punch on Thailand's Janjaem Suwannapheng during the Women's 66kg semi-final on Tuesday

(Image credit: Richard Pelham / Getty Images)

published 10 August 2024

When Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won her quarter-final bout to guarantee herself a medal, it was "a brief happy moment for the fighter", said Jack Rathborn in The Independent. She "thumped the canvas in delight", before tearfully declaring "I am a woman." But her time in Paris has not been a happy one. A year ago, at the World Championships run by the International Boxing Association, she had been disqualified, the IBA claiming she had XY (male) chromosomes and thus failed the gender eligibility test. They did the same to Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, who this week also reached the semi-final. And as a result, the success of both women in Paris has been shrouded in "a cloud of toxicity and largely uninformed judgements".

Nevertheless, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which last year stripped the IBA of recognition, should have intervened in this case, said Owen Slot in The Times: it "has failed heinously in its duty of care to its athletes" by not doing so. Khelif's case is in some ways reminiscent of that of the runner Caster Semenya, whose Olympic titles came under scrutiny when it was revealed she had "DSD" – differences in sex development affording her testosterone-linked advantages. But the difference between track and field and boxing is that boxing exposes contestants to physical danger. Khelif's previous opponent, Angela Carini, had to abandon the fight after 46 seconds, saying she'd never before been punched so hard. She didn't stand a chance. The IOC should never have allowed Khelif and Lin to fight.

Yet we shouldn't take the IBA verdict on their gender as gospel, said Mike Keegan in The Mail on Sunday. The IBA is a discredited body with close ties to Moscow. Could we be "falling for another Russian-led misinformation campaign"? One thing is clear, said Barney Ronay in The Guardian, it has been horribly tough on the two boxers. "Seeing Lin and Khelif in the flesh, as people, not avatars in a war of ideologies" should give us pause for thought.