Paris Olympics: Algeria hits back after IBA says Imane Khelif is a male

Imane Khelif, together with Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, are in the eye of a storm after it emerged they failed gender eligibility tests in 2023

By AFP

Published: Mon 5 Aug 2024, 10:54 PM

Last updated: Tue 6 Aug 2024, 9:34 PM

Algeria's Olympic Committee accused the International Boxing Association of "baseless claims" after the IBA alleged on Monday that an Algerian boxer in the semi-finals of the Paris women's competition was "a male".

Imane Khelif, together with Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, are in the eye of a storm after it emerged they were disqualified from the IBA's 2023 world championships for failing gender eligibility tests, without specifying what the tests were.

The boxing in the French capital is run by the International Olympic Committee because of financial, governance and ethical concerns at the IBA.

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The IOC cleared the two boxers to fight and both are in the semifinals and therefore guaranteed a medal.

The two organisations have been in open dispute.

An IBA press conference in Paris was designed to clarify what tests Khelif and Lin underwent last year, and what the results showed.

IBA officials including Kremlin-linked Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev, the organisation's president, who was on a remote video call, gave a series of contradictory statements to a room packed full of reporters.

The officials said they were also constrained by medical confidentiality.

What was clear was when Ioannis Filippatos, former chairman of the IBA's medical committee, said "abnormalities" were detected in blood tests of both boxers in 2022.

The two boxers were tested again in 2023 to confirm the initial findings, IBA officials said, and after that they were disqualified.

"The medical result, blood result, looks -- and the laboratory says -- that this boxer is male," said Filippatos.

"The problem is that we have two blood exams with karyotype of male. This is the answer from the laboratory."

A karyotype is an individual's complete set of chromosomes, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute in the United States.

It can also be a laboratory-produced image used to look for abnormalities in chromosome number or structure.

The Algerian Olympic and Sports Committee quickly hit back, saying: "Algeria is not a member of the IBA.

"We do not recognise the IBA as a legitimate institution, and it has no connection with the Olympic Games.

"Our champion, Imane Khelif, remains untouched and undeterred by the baseless claims of the IBA."

IOC president Thomas Bach and high-level officials from Algeria and Taiwan have strenuously defended Khelif and Lin, saying they were born and raised as women, and have passports saying that.

The Olympic body, which has effectively expelled the IBA from the Olympic movement, has accused the IBA of making "an arbitrary decision" over disqualifying the duo in 2023.

Khelif and Lin also fought at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but did not win a medal and competed without controversy.

The IOC told AFP following the IBA press conference: "The content and the organisation of the IBA press conference tells you everything that you need to know about this organisation and its credibility."

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