A boxer who has failed past gender eligibility tests has taken down another female opponent at the Paris Olympics, and has easily advanced to the gold-medal match, which is scheduled for Friday.
Imane Khelif of Algeria dominated female boxer Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand 5:0 in the semifinals on Tuesday. Suwannapheng was pounded with punches in the third round and took a standing eight-count.
Thus far in the Paris Olympics, Khelif has won every single round on every judge’s card.
Khelif and Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan both failed gender tests in 2019 and 2023, per the International Boxing Association (IBA).
A blood test in 2019 showed that the fighters had “inconsistent” results, suggesting that the bloodwork was inconsistent with that of a female, IBA CEO Chris Roberts said during a press conference on Monday. In 2023, another test revealed that the fighters “demonstrated the chromosomes we refer to in competition rules that make both boxers ineligible,” he added.
Khelif and Lin were subsequently disqualified from the 2023 world championships. Notably, Suwannapheng and Khelif fought during the tournament before Khelif’s disqualification. Khelif won that match, too.
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Opponents of Khelif and Lin have spoken out about having to fight the boxers. Angela Carini of Italy, for example, called her match “unjust,” before later walking back the comments. Hungarian fighter Anna Luca Hamori, who also lost to Khelif, published numerous posts on social media that related to Khelif being a man before their fight.
As for Lin, Bulgarian fighter Svetlana Staneva staged a protest with her coach after their fight. Staneva made the “X” gesture two times with her hands — a reference to having XX chromosomes as a female — after her loss to Lin. And Staneva’s coach shared a note with the press that read, “I only want to play with women I am XX.”
International Olympics Committee (IOC) spokesperson Mark Adams, however, has claimed that the IBA gender tests are “not credible” because the IBA is not credible and the reasoning for the tests is not credible, ESPN reported.
“There was no consideration of whether they were correct or not correct because they had no bearing for the eligibility of boxing here,” he said.