The controversy involving boxing participants Imane Khelif (Algeria) and Lin Yu-Ting (Chinese Taipei) at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris was entirely avoidable.
The briefing and statement by the International Boxing Association (IBA) to clarify the facts was welcome but it was unfortunate that comments from the IBA president inflamed the situation. But the focus should be on the IOC, because they are the ones who are failing women.
Fairness and safety for female athletes in sport is ensured by having a dedicated category for those born female. The ICFS calls on the IOC and on all international federations in sport to reinstate sex screening, to protect the integrity of women’s sport.
Cofounder of the ICFS, Linda Blade, PhD, Kinesiology, said,
“Boxing is the sport with the greatest disparity between males and female – with males punching 162% harder than females. The potential harm to females that could result from the pummelling delivered by an unverified participant who is male is catastrophic.”
Fiona McAnena of Sex Matters, a human rights charity, said,
“This failure can be laid at the door of the IOC, and the IOC could solve it too. It’s the IOC that set up the Paris boxing unit, and the IOC that is claiming there is no scientific consensus on how to determine who is a woman. The same IOC insists these two boxers are women. By refusing to allow or recognise sex screening, it is the IOC that has invited public scrutiny of Khelif and Lin.”
The Olympic Charter lists “sex” as a characteristic against which discrimination is forbidden.
The IOC is wrong when it says no one wants to return to sex testing. Surveys have shown consistently that the vast majority of female athletes want sex screening. At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, 82% of those surveyed were in favour. [The study was published here. https://www.gimjournal.org/article/S1098-3600(21)00234-3/pdf]
Time and again over this past week, the IOC has repeatedly violated its own charter and its own guidelines on non-discrimination. It has overlooked overt sex discrimination against the female opponents of Khelif and Lin. It has failed to:
Abide by the principle that it is up to individual sport governing bodies to create their own eligibility criteria to protect female athletes (without interference by the IOC).
Consult with the female athlete cohort or even take into consideration the concerns of the women directly at risk of serious physical harm.
Show impartiality in approach by conducting its own verification as a follow-up to the IBA results.
Protect all female Olympians as a cohort distinct for males.
Protect Khelif and Lin from public scrutiny and malicious speculation.
Unfortunately, all of these failures have resulted in bringing both the sport of boxing and the integrity of Olympic Games into disrepute.
Contacts
North America
Dr Linda Blade, Sport Performance Professional, ICFS co-founder, coachblade@gmail.com , DM @coachblade on X
Europe
Sally Parkin, Sex Matters, sally.parkin@sex-matters.org
Available spokespeople:
Dr Emma Hilton, Developmental Biologist
Fiona McAnena, Director of Campaigns, Sex Matters
About the International Consortium on Female Sport
The ICFS is an international lobby group that advocates for the preservation of the female sports category. it is a non-partisan, single-issue collective of women’s sports advocates from across the political spectrum. Its foundational principle is that fairness and safety for female athletes in sport is ensured by having a dedicated category for those born female, and that identity does not change this.
International women’s sport group calls for sex testing at the Olympics
