The International Olympic Committee (IOC) in its pursuit of diversity will allow two biological males who identify as females compete in women’s boxing at the 2024 Paris Games. Video footage shows how Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who is a biological male, walloped his female opponent in an earlier match prior to the Olympics. Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting will compete in the women’s division. Khelif will fight Italian boxer Angela Carini in the 66 kilogram category Thursday, and Lin will fight an undetermined opponent in the 57 kilogram category on Friday. Khelif accused critics of perpetuating a conspiracy after he was disqualified for being too male to compete against women at the 2023 world championships, Agence France-Presse reported. . The IOC on Tuesday defended the announcement it made on Monday allowing Khelif and Lin to box — the two meet the “gender eligibility requirements” to fight against biological women, the committee decided. The male boxers were disqualified from the 2023 World Championships after failing gender tests”on account of their high testosterone levels. However, they were approved to fight in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Scientific research has found someone who has gone through male puberty has on average 162% greater punching power than females. .International Boxing Association (IBA) president Umar Kremlev after the two were disqualified from worlds told Russian media Tass DNA tests had “proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded from the sports events.” IBA subsequently told the Guardian that was “following a comprehensive review and was intended to uphold the fairness and integrity of the competition”.However, the IBA was removed from its authority and replaced with the more lax IOC 2024 Paris Boxing Unit (PBU), which allowed the men to compete against women. Former boxing world champion Barry McGuigan spoke out against the decision on social media. “It’s shocking that they were actually allowed to get this far, what is going on?” tweeted McGuigan. .The IOC said in a statement to the Guardian the PBU "used the Tokyo 2020 boxing rules (enforced at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and the related qualifying tournaments) as a (baseline) to develop its regulations.""Those rules descended from the Rio 2016 rules," it said. "The PBU endeavoured to restrict amendments to minimize the impact on athletes’ preparation and guaranteeing consistency between Olympic Games.”Khelif was disqualified and stripped of a bronze medal before the gold medal match in the 2023 World Championship in New Delhi because his testosterone levels surpassed eligibility criteria.
