Boxing is suddenly in the middle of a scandal at the Paris Olympics after a pair of fighters — Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu-ting — started competing at the Games despite failing unspecified gender eligibility tests in 2023.
Here’s a look back and how Khelif and Yu-ting got here and what led up to the controversy this week in Paris:
The International Olympic Committee and the International Boxing Association have been in a feud for years. The IOC first suspended the IBA as the sport’s governing body for the Games in 2019 over what it saw were several issues with the organization, including its financial status, the integrity of fights and judges, and its leadership.
This decision allowed the IOC to move forward without the IBA for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Both Khelif and Yu-ting competed at the Tokyo Olympics without any issues.
Khelif reached the women’s lightweight quarterfinals, and Yu-ting was eliminated in the round of 16 in the women’s featherweight division. The IOC governed the Olympic sport at this time.
Both Khelif and Yu-ting had impressive runs in both 2022 and early 2023. Khelif won gold at the Africa Championships in 2022 and then fell in the gold-medal match at the world championships to Ireland’s Amy Broadhurst.
Yu-ting won gold in the women’s featherweight division at the 2022 world championships when she beat Irma Testa in the final match. She also won gold at the Asian Games the following year.
After first conducting unspecified gender eligibility tests in 2022 and again at the world championships in New Delhi in 2023, the IBA suddenly disqualified both Khelif and Yu-ting from competition after it claimed the two athletes failed. Evidence of the alleged failed tests was never revealed. The IBA said its rules prevent athletes with XY chromosomes from competing in women’s events.
Most men are born with one X and one Y chromosome, and most women are born with two X chromosomes, however there are plenty of exceptions.
Yu-ting was stripped of her bronze medal after the IBA claimed she failed to meet unspecified eligibility requirements in a biochemical test, and Khelif was disqualified for what the IBA claimed were elevated levels of testosterone just hours before her gold medal fight.
The IBA said this week that those decisions were made “after a meticulous review.” The IOC said this was a “sudden and arbitrary decision” that was made “without any due process.” It’s unclear what specifically went into these gender eligibility tests.
The IOC stopped recognizing the IBA as the sport’s governing body in 2023, a move which was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in April 2024. It first suspended the IBA in 2019. The IBA was dropped due to a lack of financial transparency and sustainability, its refereeing and judges policies and more.
The Paris 2024 Boxing Unit is now in charge of competition. According to the IOC, as it has been with past boxing competitions at the Games, “the gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport.”
Angela Carini retired from her fight against Algeria’s Imane Khelif less than a minute into it on Thursday in Paris after taking a series of hard punches in the opening seconds of the bout.
“I had entered the ring to fight,” Carini said in Italian after the fight. “I didn’t give up, but a punch hurt too much and so I said enough. I go out with my head held high.”
Khelif did not speak to reporters after the fight. Algeria’s Olympic committee issued a strong statement the day before slamming the “unethical targeting and maligning” of her by foreign media outlets, which it called “deeply unfair.”
The IOC defended both Khelif and Yu-ting in a lengthy statement on Thursday night, and said that “every person has the right to practice sport without discrimination.” The organization also condemned the harsh attacks that came against the two athletes on social media, and said it was “saddened by the abuse that the two athletes are currently receiving.”
The IOC laid out a long defense of both athletes in its statement, saying that both “have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category,” which is true. It slammed the IBA for what it considered inconsistent and arbitrary decisions to ban these two athletes, and said that the National Boxing Federations need to “reach a new consensus” over this issue before the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Yu-ting had no issue beating Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova in her opening round boxing match on Friday. She won via a convincing 5-0 unanimous decision, which pushed her into the quarterfinals of the 57kg division.
There was no sign that Yu-ting was impacted by the controversy whatsoever on Friday. Neither she nor Turdibekova spoke to reporters after the fight.
Carini offered an apology on Friday, one day after she abandoned her bout against Khelif not even a minute in. Carini said she regretted not shaking Khelif’s hand before leaving the ring, and that she would “embrace” Khelif if they met again.
“It wasn’t something I intended to do,” Carini told an Italian publication. “Actually, I want to apologize to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke.”
The IOC again stood by its decision and defended both Khelif and Yu-ting on Friday. IOC spokesman Mark Adams insisted on Friday during a media briefing in Paris that neither fighter in question are transgender.
“The Algerian boxer was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female and has a female passport,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. “This is not a transgender case. There has been some confusion that this is a man fighting a woman. This is just not the case. On that there is consensus. Scientifically this is not a man fighting a woman.”
“Are these athletes women?” Adams said later. “Yes, according to eligibility, according to their passports, according to their history.”
Adams also questioned the IBA’s tests.
“We don’t know what the protocol was, we don’t know that the test was accurate, we don’t know if we should believe the test,” he said.
“As for the tests themselves, we have no knowledge of what the tests were,” he added later. “They were cobbled together as I understand it, to change the results.”
The president of the International Olympic Committee has reaffirmed that two boxers competing in the Olympics are women, and have lived and competed as such for their entire lives. Thomas Bach also criticized the boxing federation which suspended both women, and called online harassment of Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu-ting “totally unacceptable.”
“Let’s be very clear here. We are talking about women’s boxing,” Bach said Saturday morning. “We have two boxers who were born as woman [sic], been raised as woman, who have passports as a woman, and who have competed for many years as woman. This is legally the definition of a woman. There was never any doubt about them being a woman.”
Algeria’s Imane Khelif, boxing in the Olympics for the first time since she became a worldwide subject of notoriety and speculation, defeated Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori in the women’s 66kg quarterfinals at Paris North Arena by unanimous decision. Khelif collapsed in sobs as she left the ring, and said little after the fight beyond dedicating the match to her native Algeria.
The media tribune at Paris North Arena was filled beyond capacity, but with all due respect to the other 35 Olympians fighting Saturday evening, the world media was in the arena for one fighter, and one fighter only. Khelif entered the arena to waves of cheers, leaping into the ring to the tune of “Jump Around.” Hamori, following her, was hit with far more boos as she made her way around the ring.
The two quickly tapped gloves and prepared for the fight in the most energetic event of the afternoon. Early in the first of three rounds, Khelif used her superior reach to stay out of Hamori’s line of fire. Hamori spent most of the first round as the aggressor, while Khelif was largely content to stay back and pick her spots. A flurry of blows at the end of the first round kept the crowd engaged, and Khelif won the first round 10-9 on all five judges’ cards.
Khelif, who has been the subject of unrelenting social media attacks over the last two days, knelt and touched the canvas before she left the ring. Then she sagged against the shoulders of her coaches as she walked off the arena floor, her face wet with tears as the moment caught up to her.
Lin Yu-ting, one of two women boxers embroiled in a gender controversy at the Summer Olympics, won her quarterfinal bout in the 57kg division and is guaranteed a medal.
Lin, of Chinese Taipei, defeated Bulgaria’s Svetlana Staneva by unanimous decision, 5-0. Lin is a long, lanky lefthander who had little trouble outboxing Staneva. The fight featured numerous tie-ups and step-ins by the referee.
In the Olympics, all four boxers who reach the semifinals are guaranteed at least a bronze medal.
The story of the Olympics’ boxing gender controversy moved to a grander stage on Tuesday night, as Algeria’s Imane Khelif won a unanimous decision and now moves on to fight for an Olympic gold medal.
Khelif squared off against Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng shortly after 10:30 p.m. under the closed roof of Roland-Garros Stadium, before a raucous and engaged crowd. The echoes in cavernous Roland-Garros were far louder than tiny North Paris Arena, where Khelif’s Olympic journey began.
Algerian flags lined Roland-Garros’ lower sections, and Khelif entered the arena second, to the night’s loudest cheers and deafening chants of “I-MANE.” Wearing blue trunks and top, she stormed into the arena, punching the air. Khelif and Suwannapheng tapped gloves at the center of the ring, and the fight began.
Khelif now moves on to the gold medal match, scheduled for Friday evening at 10:51 Paris time. Lin will fight Wednesday night in the 57kg semifinal round. Both have clinched at least bronze medals.
Algeria’s Imane Khelif won the gold medal in the 66kg women’s boxing finals, capping a whirlwind Olympics that found her in the middle of global controversy over her gender. She defeated China’s Liu Yang in a unanimous decision.
A sizable Algerian crowd roared their approval, chanting “I-MANE, I-MANE” and nearly blowing the roof off Roland Garros, the tennis facility being used for the medal rounds of the boxing tournament.
The fans had been vocal throughout, offering encouragement and waving Algerian flags in support of the 25-year-old. They celebrated each combination before cheering the end-of-round results.
Khelif was dominant against Liu, who was a game fighter that often took the attack to Khelif. The two fighters repeatedly tapped gloves and offered mutual respect to each other, even hugging at the end.
Khelif won all five scorecards in the first two rounds to all but guarantee victory.
