Boxing organisation to launch lawsuit over Olympic gender row
The two female boxers had been excluded from the IBA's 2023 world championships after the fighters failed gender eligibility tests but the IOC cleared them to fight and both went on to win gold medals in Paris.
Thailand's Janjaem Suwannapheng and Algeria's Imane Khelif (Blue) compete in the women's 66kg semi-final boxing match during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Roland-Garros Stadium, in Paris on 6 August 2024. Picture: MOHD RASFAN/AFP
LAUSANNE - The International Boxing Association (IBA) said on Monday it is to take legal action against the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over the inclusion of Algeria's Imane Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting at last year's Olympic Games.
The two female boxers had been excluded from the IBA's 2023 world championships after the fighters failed gender eligibility tests but the IOC cleared them to fight and both went on to win gold medals in Paris.
The IOC organised the boxing in Paris following the expulsion of the IBA from the Olympic movement after financial and ethical irregularities.
In its statement, which linked their action to US President Donald Trump's executive order last week seeking to ban transgender athletes from participating in women's sports, the IBA said that it is "filing an official complaint with the Attorney General of Switzerland... regarding the IOC's actions".
It added that it was filing similar complaints in France and the United States.
"President Trump’s order to ban transgender athletes from women’s sport validates IBA's efforts to protect the integrity of female sports," claimed IBA president Umar Kremlev, a Kremlin-linked Russian oligarch.
Neither Imane Khelif nor Lin Yu-ting are transgender women. Both were born and raised as women, which is how they are registered on their passports.