Thomas Bach condemns “hate speech” against two Olympic boxers

Paris. The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, condemned on Saturday the “unacceptable” attacks launched on social media against two female boxers from the Paris 2024 Games, who have been called for their exclusion due to suspicions about their gender.

Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who will be fighting for medals this weekend, are at the centre of controversy after failing a gender eligibility test for the women’s boxing world championship last year.

Images of the Algerian’s victorious debut against Italian Angela Carini sparked a firestorm on social media on Thursday, with a legion of users questioning whether the boxer is a woman, while conservative political figures such as Giorgia Meloni, Javier Milei and Donald Trump cried out against allowing Khelif and Lin to compete in Paris.

“Hate speech” on social media is “unacceptable” and fuelled by a political “agenda”, Thomas Bach said at a press conference in Paris on Saturday.

“There has never been any doubt that they are women,” insisted the president of the IOC, the body now responsible for organising Olympic boxing. “They were born women, they grew up as women, they have a women’s passport and they have competed as women for several years,” he added.

Anyone who questions the two boxers should “present a new scientifically based definition of who a woman is and how it is possible that someone who is born, raised, competes and has a passport as a woman cannot be considered a woman,” Bach stressed, in line with the IOC’s defence of the female boxers in recent days.

In favor of boxing in 2028

The disqualification of Khelif and Lin from the 2023 World Championships in New Delhi was decided by the International Boxing Association (IBA), which was stripped of its hosting rights to the Paris Olympic tournament by the IOC for lack of transparency.

Regarding the doubts about the continuity of boxing in the Olympic programme, Bach spoke in favour of its presence in Los Angeles 2028 as long as “a reliable partner” is found for the organisation.

“We want boxing to be on the Olympic programme, that is the objective,” he stressed, but warned that “it can only be at the Los Angeles Games if we have a reliable partner.”

The IOC and the IBA have had a long-standing dispute, particularly over the refereeing scandals at boxing competitions.