Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan gestures after her win in a fight in 2018. Lin is competing in Olympic boxing. | Photo by Sajjad Hussain AFP via Getty Images

The International Olympic Committee strongly backed women boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan, who have been under vicious attacks online from people who claim they are men fighting as women, based on the alleged findings of a boxing body that is pro-Russia and at odds with the IOC.

“Every person has the right to practice sport without discrimination,” the IOC said in a lengthy statement where it laid out the case for why Khelif and Lin are allowed to compete.

The two fighters have been at the center of a controversy after they were barred from female competition in 2023 by the International Boxing Assn., which claimed they failed gender-eligibility tests. That ruling, which is lacking in transparency, has set off a firestorm from the well-organized anti-trans lobby, despite the two women having also fought in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and not winning a medal.

“We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024,” the IOC said. “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.”

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The people attacking Khelif and Lin are basing it on the IBA ruling and tests, which the organization refuses to release citing confidentiality. This mean no one knows who conducted the tests, what lab was used, were proper procedures followed, what the tests showed and were they independently verified. In addition, many online are claiming these women are trans, which is not true. There might be a good-faith medical and sports discussion to be had, but the people attacking Khelif and Lin aren’t the ones to engage with.

In an excellent column for USA Today by Dan Wolken that lays out the issues very well, there is also a strong Russian hand behind the IBA, with the IBA head last week calling IOC head Thomas Bach the “chief sodomites.”

“Here’s something else we also know: The IBA has been in a long-running dispute with the IOC, and as a result, boxing’s future in the Olympics beyond the Paris Games is up in the air,” Wolken writes.

“What’s the dispute about? In a word: Russia.

“When Umar Kremlev became the IBA president in 2020, he made his mark by signing a significant sponsorship deal with Gazprom, Russia’s state energy supplier. It is understood that Gazprom essentially funded the IBA’s entire operation.

“Early in 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. As a result, the IOC wanted the IBA to drop Gazprom and make other reforms to its governance and financial structures and to clean up a bevy of ethical issues.

“Unsatisfied with the IBA’s response – including a claim that Gazprom’s sponsorship expired at the end of 2022 – the IOC stripped its sanction of the Olympic boxing tournament.”

Russia has a horrible record on LGBTQ issues, with laws that are among the most punishing in the world.

As for what other boxers think, Amy Broadhurst, an Irish champion who has defeated Khelif, said the Algerian did nothing wrong, writing on X:

“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.”

The IOC’s statement won’t stop the hate, but it does issue a clear and concise defense of why these two women athletes are allowed to compete.

Here is the complete IOC statement:

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.

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