Two boxers who were disqualified from the Women’s World Boxing Championship in 2023 due to questions surrounding their biological sex have been cleared to fight in the women’s division at the Paris Olympics. Not only do most see their participation as being unfair, but OutKick’s Riley Gaines believes a female fighter could be killed during the Paris Games.
Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting are the two fighters in question who were removed from Women’s World Boxing Championship in March 2023. Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association (IBA), announced the disqualifications after he met with executives to discuss “fairness among athletes and professionalism.” He said that after “a series of DNA-tests,” the IBA “uncovered athletes who were trying to fool their colleagues and pretend to be women.”
Kremlev told TASS News that the tests had proven the athletes in question “had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded from the sports events.”
In other words, past tests showed that Khelif and Line are males, yet the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is disregarding those past results because it does not have blanket rules regarding transgender athletes or testosterone levels.
Neither boxer has explicitly identified as being transgender, but it is suspected that both are impacted by a Difference of Sexual Development (DSD) — meaning they have both male and female genitalia — according to Reduxx.
After both fighters were deemed eligible to step into the ring against biological females in Paris, Gaines pointed out the absurdity of the situation while explaining that a woman may die in the ring after being forced to fight against both ‘XY athletes.’
Khelif was set to take on Yang Liu of China in the welterweight title fight at the Women’s World Championship but was removed before the gold medal fight. Lin has found success in women’s boxing as well Lin having previously won five gold medals in women’s boxing tournaments, including two at the World Championships in 2018 and 2022.
Lin has a first-round bye in the 57-kilogram division while Khelif will fight against Italy’s Angela Carini in the 66-kilogram category.
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