Controversy over Olympic women’s boxing reaches UN Security Council

Paris. Russia and Algeria clashed at the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday after Moscow raised a gender controversy in Olympic boxing during a meeting of the body focused on women, peace and security.

Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, accused Western countries of monopolising the Olympic movement and “aggressively” imposing on the rest of the world an LGBT agenda that he believes undermines women’s rights and dignity.

“At the Paris Olympics, female boxers are being publicly subjected to violence by athletes who have previously failed hormone tests carried out by the international boxing federation and who, according to the federation and according to common sense, are men,” she said. “This is absolutely disgusting.”

Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting, representing Algeria and Taiwan, have been ruled out of the 2023 World Championships after the International Boxing Association (IBA) said a sex chromosome test had ruled them ineligible.

They were able to compete in Paris 2024 after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped the IBA of its status as the sport’s governing body in 2023 and took control of the competition in the French capital.

The IOC says they are women and alleges the IBA is mired in financial secrecy and compromised by its ties to Russian officials.

Algerian diplomat Toufik Koudri strongly rejected Polyanskiy’s remarks.

“The courageous boxer Imane Khelif was born a woman. She has lived her childhood, her education and her adolescence as a woman. She has practiced sport as a fully-fledged woman,” she told the 15-member council. “There is not a shred of doubt about that, except for those with a political agenda.”