Boxers who failed gender tests cleared to compete in women's boxing at the Paris Olympics

Two boxers were cleared to compete in the women’s category at the Paris Olympics 2024 despite both being disqualified from last year’s World Championships for failing gender eligibility tests.

Imane Khelif of Algeria was cleared for the women’s 66kg and Lin Yu-ting of Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) for the women’s 57kg category. Neither athlete is transgender, but both experience DSD (differences in sex development), meaning that they have XY chromosomes. The row exposes the controversy around the importance of keeping sports single-sex.

Khelif was set to match against Italy’s Angela Carini but the bout was halted after 46 seconds as Carini called for a stop.

After taking two blows to the face, Carini signalled that she could not continue – it has been noted that the difference in the punching power was clear from the beginning.

According to Italian media, she was seen saying to her corner, “It’s not fair.”

Emanuele Renzini, Carini’s coach, insisted that the decision to quit the bout had not been planned in advance.

“It would have been easier not to show up, because all of Italy had been asking her not to fight for days,” he said.

“But Angela was motivated and wanted to do it. Of course, when she met her opponent at the draw, she said, ‘It’s not fair.’ But there was no premeditation here today.”

The decision to include the athletes in the women’s category has raised controversy across social media including within current and former athletes, and commentators.

Australian boxing captain Caitlin Parker said, “I don’t agree with them being allowed to compete in sport, especially combat sports. It can be incredibly dangerous.”

Irish former boxer Barry McGuigan posted on X, “it’s shocking that they were actually allowed to get this far, what is going on?”

Speaking into the match, the Daily Telegraph’s Chief Sportswriter Oliver Brown highlighted that men have “90% increased bicep strength and 162% greater puncher power. To spell this out, this means that a man’s average punch has over 2.6 times the force of one delivered by a woman.”

He emphasised: “It feels inadequate to argue that the longer this goes on, the higher the chance there is that someone will be seriously hurt. In boxing, the evidence is plain that if you do not enforce the most stringent rules in prohibiting male advantage against women, someone could be killed.”

Marshi Smith of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports added: “The physical abuse of women on an Olympic stage eliminates the integrity of all Olympic events and risks lifelong injury or even death for female athletes. This deceit cannot be allowed to continue.”