Each boxers have now superior to the semi-finals, securing medals of their respective classes.
IOC’s help amid controversy
The IOC has firmly backed Khelif and Lin all through the controversy. On Saturday, IOC president Thomas Bach asserted there “was by no means any doubt” that each fighters have been ladies who had each proper to compete within the Paris Olympics. On Sunday, the IOC criticized the Worldwide Boxing Affiliation (IBA) for conducting flawed and illegitimate gender checks on the 2 athletes.
Algeria’s Imane Khelif, purple, subsequent to Italy’s Angela Carini. (AP Photograph)
The way it began
The controversy started when Khelif received her first bout in simply 46 seconds in opposition to Italy’s Angela Carini, who remarked she had by no means confronted such highly effective punches. This victory sparked a social media uproar questioning the IOC’s choice to permit Khelif to compete.
Excessive-profile figures like creator JK Rowling and billionaire Elon Musk voiced their opposition to Khelif’s participation in opposition to different feminine boxers.
The ‘X’ signal incident
The talk was reignited by Svetlana Kamenova Staneva of Bulgaria after dropping to Lin Yu-ting within the quarter-finals. Staneva made an ‘X’ image along with her fingers post-bout, referencing her ‘XX’ chromosomes in opposition to the alleged ‘XY’ chromosomes in Lin’s DNA. This gesture underscored the continuing gender debate and stirred additional controversy.
Staneva had beforehand misplaced to Lin finally yr’s World Championships, a end result later overturned to a no-contest after Lin’s disqualification. Bulgarian boxing coach Borislav Georgiev alleged that the gender debate had influenced the judges’ choice in favour of Lin.
“one hundred pc. In case your bosses are supporting one thing, you additionally work to help it. There is not any different means,” Georgiev mentioned when requested whether or not the IOC defence influenced the judges.
IOC defends the judges
The Paris Boxing Unit (PBU), an ad-hoc unit established by the IOC’s Govt Board to prepare the boxing competitors in Paris, defended its referees and judges. The PBU emphasised its confidence within the choice course of for referees and judges, which included a number of vetting steps, efficiency standards, and a random draw. It additional defined that every bout is independently evaluated by two people—one on the sector and the opposite through video feed.
Concentrating on of Lin and Khelif
Lin and Khelif have confronted important scrutiny in Paris, partly attributable to their disqualification on the 2023 World Championships for unspecified gender eligibility rule violations by the IBA.
The IOC, which took over the group of the boxing event after stripping the IBA of worldwide recognition in 2023, has been on the forefront of defending the athletes.
Requires finish to ‘bullying’
Khelif has spoken out in opposition to the wave of hateful scrutiny over misconceptions about her gender, stating that it “harms human dignity.” She has known as for an finish to the bullying of athletes, highlighting the extreme results such actions can have.
“I ship a message to all of the folks of the world to uphold the Olympic ideas and the Olympic Constitution, to chorus from bullying all athletes, as a result of this has results, large results,” Khelif mentioned in Arabic throughout an interview with SNTV, a sports activities video companion of The Related Press. “It might destroy folks, it could possibly kill folks’s ideas, spirit, and thoughts. It might divide folks. And due to that, I ask them to chorus from bullying.”
The gender row in Paris boxing stays a hotly debated subject, with the IOC persevering with to defend its athletes and the integrity of the competitors amidst ongoing scrutiny and controversy.
