Thursday’s Olympic bout between Imane Khelif and Angela Carini quickly turned ugly off the ring and blowback permeated well into Friday, when the IOC was forced to address a barrage of questions regarding its handling of gender issues in boxing.  

Khelif’s second right hand hit Carini’s nose and the International Olympic Committee right in the gut as it struggles to find a caretaker for the sport globally, after stripping down the International Boxing Association in 2023 because of governance concerns. It was a worst-case scenario of sorts for the Paris 2024 organisers when the fight was called just 46 seconds after the Italian decided to retire, alleging that the punch “hurt me a lot”.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams expressed his get-well wishes the next morning, stating that “we don’t like to see injury to any athlete, obviously, and hope that she makes a full recovery”. But by then, the bout had scaled into a full-blown tornado well beyond the Paris arena. Or as the Englishman himself eloquently put it, “a minefield”.

Boxing in the 66kg category, Khelif had been previously disqualified from the 2023 World Championships in New Delhi because she did not meet “eligibility criteria” according to the IBA. Yet, like Taiwan’s Lin Yu Ting, who boxes at 57kg and also failed such test by the global federation, she was still allowed to compete in the 2024 Olympics, the same way she did three years earlier in Tokyo.

The evident power struggle between both sports governing bodies has spilled into the political and social media arena as well, with politicians and celebrities aplenty chiming in the latest gender-spiked controversy: from US presidential candidate Donald Trump to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Citing athlete safety, the noise keeps rising while the safeguarding of the affected individuals also hangs in the balance, with online abuse another pressing concern.

“It’s a thorny issue which is part of a culture war-discussion. No one likes to see online aggression by anyone and we have had quite a bit of it. It’s unacceptable. We would hope that that stops. I’m not sure we can make it stop but it’s not helpful for the Games,” Adams understated. “These athletes are women. This was a made-up overnight test (by IBA). I don’t think we should give that any credence at all. If we do that, we start having the kind of witch hunts that we are having now.”

A delicate, controversial, complex, multi-layered subject that requires a serene discussion among experts in the field has been anything but since Carini’s almost immediate surrender. The matter of eligibility in this specific instance traces back the decision to the athlete’s passport and registered gender, according to the IOC. “The Algerian boxer was born female, registered female, lived her life as a female and boxed as a female. This is not a transgender case,” emphasised Adams. “This is not a man fighting a woman. Scientifically on this, there is consensus”.

Where consensus is lacking, however, is in how it is possible to establish a fair fight in such cases, especially regarding a combat discipline like boxing. One of the reasons that world sports did away with sex testing is the practical impossibility of applying a comprehensive, working, non-discriminatory protocol. 

“For the time being, we have to go with the passport,” Adams argued. “We encourage a consensus. We have been addressing that for a while and it’s something to consider very seriously after the Paris Games. This is a minefield and we want a simple, black-and-white explanation of how we can determine this. That explanation does not exist neither in the scientific world nor anywhere else. If we can find a consensus, we will certainly work to apply that. Clearly that’s not going to happen at these Games but this is a question in all sports and we are open to listen to anyone with a solution”.

Openly critical of the IOC’s handling of the case, IBA is not expected to be part of that equation anytime soon, as the body presided by Thomas Bach has considered the Delhi disqualifications arbitrary decisions. “No one should change the rule during a competition. This decision was taken overnight by the CEO and maybe had something to do with the results beforehand, but we don’t really know. Fortunately, it’s not up to us to act on those suspicions because, if we did, we would probably be dealing with that forever,” the IOC spokesman said.

Adams also referenced sex testing, which ended in 1999. “I don’t think anyone from the athlete, political or scientific community wants to see a return to those scenes even if there were a sex test that everyone agreed with the criteria. I have spoken to some athletes who endured those sex tests in their teens and it was pretty disgraceful. Luckily it is behind us,” he explained.

The main controversy now lies with the Delhi testing protocol, whose results IBA considered “conclusively indicated” that both Khelif and Lin failed to meet the required eligibility criteria and gave them a competitive advantage over other female competitors. Since removed, the Algerian’s Paris 2024 bio profile stated that she had been disqualified from said world championships for elevated levels of testosterone.

 While the IOC’s understanding is that it was indeed the case, it decided to erase that information after the Carini bout, alleging that there are many women who register higher testosterone levels than men and preferred not to elevate that test outcome into a truth.

“We have no knowledge of what the test where. They were cobbled together overnight to change the results. If you start working on suspicions, then we are in trouble and heading towards a gender-testing regime, which is not good for anybody. This woman has competed for a very long time against many opponents,” Adams repeated.

Like the IBA, the IOC insists that it always puts the interest of the athlete first. But walking the fine line between inclusivity, fairness and safety is a difficult balancing act. “A woman boxer is being stigmatised and potentially being forced out of competition. We need to look after them,” the Englishman reminded.

As for the controversy possibly undermining boxing’s options of making the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic programme, Adams denied such a notion. “We sincerely hope that it’s going to be in. It’s a good sport to watch that does a lot for socially deprived areas and people and we absolutely, actively want it to be in the Olympics. We took our role in the last two Games, but we are not a federation and don’t want to carry on. We encourage those who love boxing, particularly national federations, to work towards a new international body. I’m optimistic and the will is there by the IOC, which is important”.

Indeed, it is. Asked if he had watched the Carini-Khelif fight, Adams answered affirmatively, stating the obvious: that “it was over far too quickly”.

As for the controversy surrounding it, the IOC can only hope.

-insidethegames