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As Algerian boxer Imane Khelif prepared to fight for an Olympic gold medal on Friday, IOC president Thomas Bach again defended her right to compete in the women’s competition at the Paris Games.
Khelif is in the final of the women’s welterweight competition and Li Yu-ting of Taiwan will fight for the women’s featherweight title on Saturday after a global uproar fueled by misconceptions about their sex.
“This is not a question of inclusion. This is a question of justice,” Bach said Friday when asked at his final news conference if the Olympics had sacrificed safety to be inclusive.
“This is not as easy as some in this cultural war may now want to portray it,” said the International Olympic Committee leader, who previously denounced “hate speech” directed at the two boxers.
The debate at the Olympics flared 16 months after both women were disqualified and denied medals at the 2023 world championships by the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association.
The IBA, which is in a bitter, years-long feud with the IOC, claims both fighters failed a murky eligibility test for women’s competition. Boxing is being run in Paris by an IOC-appointed team with eligibility rules from 2016 that are outdated compared to other Olympic sports.
“If somebody is presenting us a scientifically solid system how to identify men and women, we are the first ones to do it,” Bach said Friday. “We do not like this uncertainty.
“What is not possible is someone saying ‘this is not a woman’ just by looking at somebody or by falling prey to a defamation campaign by a not credible organization with highly political interests.”
The IOC president said he will not be at either gold-medal bout at the Roland Garros tennis complex because he still has to attend four of the 32 Olympic sports before the games close on Sunday.
“But this has no impact on our very clear position,” Bach said. “Women have the right to participate in women’s competitions. And the two are women.”
