Two athletes who failed tests to compete as women last year will be allowed to do so at the Olympics.
Boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan were banned by the International Boxing Association, according to the Guardian.
IBA President Umar Kremlev said, DNA tests had “proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded from the sports events.”
But the Olympics have different rules, and what was banned before is just dandy now.
“Obviously, I am not going to comment on individuals,” International Olympic Committee representative Mark Adams said, according to the Guardian.
“That’s really invidious and unfair. But I would just say that everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules,” he said.
“They are women in their passports, and it is stated that is the case,” he said.
Adams said the question of determining who should compete as a woman is really, really hard.
“As for the question about testosterone and going through male puberty, we issued a framework document to all the federations,” he said. “And everyone would love to have a single answer: yes, no, yes, no. But it’s incredibly complex.”
Should these boxers be able to compete in the women’s division?
“And actually it boils down to not just sport by sport, but discipline by discipline. So people may have an advantage in this discipline and not in this discipline if they have been through male puberty or not,” he said.
“Federations need to make the rules to make sure that there is fairness, but at the same time with the ability for everyone to take part who wants to,” he said.
Some were very upset at the ruling.
“As if the Satanic display at the opening ceremony wasnt enough, the Olympics glorifies men punching women in the face with the intent of knocking them unconscious. Imane Khelif is 1 of 2 male boxers fighting women at the Olympics,” gender policy sanity activist Riley Gaines posted on X.
“A woman is going to die,” she wrote.
WARNING: The following video contains images of violence that may be disturbing for some readers.
As if the Satanic display at the opening ceremony wasnt enough, the Olympics glorifies men punching women in the face with the intent of knocking them unconscious.
Imane Khelif is 1 of 2 male boxers fighting women at the Olympics. A woman is going to die. pic.twitter.com/kYJX1MaAw4
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) July 30, 2024
Former world champion Barry McGuigan was not a fan of the ruling.
“It’s shocking that they were actually allowed to get this far, what is going on?” he wrote in a post on X.
It’s shocking that they were actually allowed to get this far, what is going on ? https://t.co/kOhsCBYUlb
— Barry McGuigan (@ClonesCyclone) July 29, 2024
The U.K.’s Daily Mail noted that in December 2022, Khelif gave a pounding to Mexican female boxer Brianda Tamara, who later spoke about the fight.
“When I fought with her I felt very out of my depth,” she wrote on X. “Her blows hurt me a lot, I don’t think I had ever felt like that in my 13 years as a boxer, nor in my sparring with men. Thank God that day I got out of the ring safely, and it’s good that they finally realized.”
