In what should be a great celebration of world class boxers has divulged into a gender war as the IBA chief has called on Imane Khelif to prove she is a woman.
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has been wrapped up in a whirlwind of controversy in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
It comes after the 25-year-old, who was born and raised as female, was disqualified from the 2023 World Championships for failing an unspecified gender eligibility test.
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Khelif and fellow Olympian Lin Yu-ting, a Taiwanese boxer fighting under 'Chinese Taipei', were disqualified due to the presence of an XY chromosome in their bodies, the International Boxing Association (IBA) claimed.
Nevertheless, Khelif and Yu-ting have both been allowed to compete in the 2024 Olympic Games, with Khelif's opponent - Italian boxer Angela Carini - calling off their bout just 46 seconds in.
However, IBA chief Umar Kremlev has doubled down on the two women being disqualified and called them both men in a wild press conference held Monday, 5 August in Paris.
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In an ill advised outburst, he called on the two women to 'prove' that they were women.
He said: “If athletes want to prove that they were born women, they have to do it themselves. They didn’t do that.
“We have no documents to prove this. If I was accused of not being a man, in that case I would bring over all the documents and go through all checks to prove that I am a real man. And I’m sitting here and I’m answering all your questions and I’m not scared of anything.”
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Kremlev also took aim at the International Olympic Committee and its president, Thomas Bach, for allowing both women to compete in the Paris Olympics, arguing it was failing to bring fairness to the sport of women’s boxing.
During the conference, speaking in Russian, Kremlev claimed: “The tests show they were men. We don’t verify what they have between their legs. We don’t know if they were born like that, or if some changes were made.
"The second tests confirmed the first tests. If people have doubts, refer to them. They can make their own tests.”
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This was in reference to two tests the two athletes had undergone, one in India last year and a prior test in Turkey in May 2022 that 'concluded the boxer’s DNA was that of a male consisting of XY chromosomes,’ according to IBA correspondence sent to the International Olympic Committee in June 2023.
However, Khelif has called on the rhetoric around the gender row to change and called on people to stop their bullying.
Speaking in Arabic to SNTV on August 4, Khelif said: "I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles and the Olympic Charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects.
"It can destroy people, it can kill people's thoughts, spirit and mind. It can divide people.
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"And because of that, I ask them to refrain from bullying."
Topics: Olympics, Sport, World News, Imane Khelif
Gerrard Kaonga