Imane Khelif from Algeria is one of two women boxers at the 2024 Paris Olympics making the news – as ugly issues of gender testing and testosterone levels once again raise their head, as they did in the case of South African runner Caster Semenya. Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting failed a questionable gender test administered by the International Boxing Association (IBA) in 2023, but were declared fit for entry by the International Olympic Committee. Both are female and identify as such, yet one of Khelif’s opponents has fuelled a public outcry that she has an unfair advantage, even spurring claims she is transgender. We asked sport sociologist and former boxer Anne Tjønndal to explain what’s going on.
What’s the history of women’s Olympic boxing – and what social issues has it faced?
Boxing was one of the last summer Olympic sports to include women athletes, with women’s boxing being introduced to the Olympic programme for the London 2012 Games. In London, only three of ten weight categories were included for women: 51kg (flyweight), 60kg (lightweight) and 75kg (middleweight). In the same games, ten weight categories were included for male boxers. The marginalisation of women’s boxing continued throughout the Rio 2016 Games, maintaining three weight categories for women and ten weight categories for men. Things started to change after Rio, with the Tokyo 2020 games including five weight categories for women and eight categories for men. In Paris, men compete in seven weight categories and women in six.
