Chaotic and controversial. Those couple of words could perfectly define what this Monday’s press conference held by the International Boxing Association (AIB) was.where it was assured that the tests carried out on the two cisgender boxers, immersed in various questions during the Paris Olympic Games-2024they show that “they are men.”
The IBA had previously said it had disqualified the Algerian Imane Khelif is the unique Lin Yu-ting of the 2023 Boxing World Cup after the boxers did not pass the gender eligibility tests, without specifying what those tests were.
Based on what happened at the Olympic event, the managers called a talk with journalists to clarify what tests Khelif and Lin underwent last year and what the results were. “The medical result, the blood result, seems – and the laboratory says – that these boxers are men,” said Ioannis Filippatos, former president of the IBA medical committee, who also assured that “anomalies” were detected in the examinations. blood in 2022.
IBA officials, including Kremlin-linked Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev, president of the sports body, who participated remotely via video call, gave a series of contradictory statements to a room full of journalists.
“The problem is that we have two blood tests with a male karyotype. This is the laboratory’s response”Filippatos added. Likewise, they said that they were also obliged to respect medicinal confidentiality, but a few seconds later this was broken with the former president’s statements.
What measures has the International Olympic Committee taken to neutralize this controversy?
Boxing in Paris-2024 is organized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) due to governance, financial and ethical problems of the IBA. Having the power to make decisions, the Games body authorized the two boxers to appear in Paris-2024 and both Khelif and Lin have already secured medals, advancing to the semifinals in their respective categories.
The IOC and senior officials from Algeria and Taiwan have vigorously defended Khelif and Lin, saying they were born and raised as women and have passports that say so. On the other hand, it is important to highlight that they themselves had expelled the IBA from the Olympic movement.
The relationship between the powerful organizations ended up being destroyed by this problem. Now, both are openly opposed. to the point that the Committee accused the AIB of making “an arbitrary decision” by disqualifying both boxers from the 2023 World Cup.
In turn, the president of the IOC, Thomas Bach, condemned on Saturday the “unacceptable” attacks launched on social networks against the two boxers and denounced “hate speech” intended to “fuel a political agenda.”
Both cisgender boxers, with a guaranteed medal in the Olympic Games
After surpassing Angela Carini by technical knockout in less than a minute, Imane Khelif She was discriminated against: her gender was questioned, her participation in the Olympic Games was questioned due to an alleged sporting advantage and his disqualification was even requested. However, unfortunately, She was not the only athlete who had to go through this situation.
Whoever suffered the same was Lin Yu-tinga Taiwanese boxer who, like the Algerian, has a high level of testosterone due to a genetic condition called hyperandrogenism and had to come out to explain the harassment he received.
His case was less relevant because He fought the next day with his colleague. Therefore, the media and public opinion in general focused their attention on the other fighter. However, the end of the story, fortunately, was the same: both were backed by the International Olympic Committee and secured a medal in Paris.
On this occasion, the Taiwanese defeated Svetlana Kamenova Staneva at featherweight and earned a place in the semifinals. Therefore, the least she can achieve from now on is a bronze medal. “Winning this match doesn’t mean I can relax, of course. I need to perfect myself at every step to defeat all my rivals and get the gold“he said after the fight.
With the bronze already guaranteed, Khelif will fight on Tuesday at the Roland Garros facilities in Paris to reach the final of her category (-66kg), while the Taiwanese Lin (-57kg) will do so on Wednesday.
What is hyperandrogenism?
The newspaper Ole spoke with Cecilia Calvar, head of Endocrinology at the Fernández Hospital in the City of Buenos Aires, to talk about hyperandrogenism, a genetic condition that caused a stir at the Paris Olympic Games. “It is defined as the increased plasma levels of male hormones in cisgender women“, he indicated. And he added: “There are multiple causes. Ruling out the exogenous application of androgens, in general, the causes are genetic“.
Likewise, he recalled: “In 2021 the International Olympic Committee reported that, until the evidence determines otherwise, one should not consider that female athletes have a disproportionate competitive advantage neither because of their sexual differences, nor because of their physical appearance, nor because of their transgender status.