Olympic boss says Paris controversy a media beat-up and insists XY boxers aren’t that good

IOC boss Thomas Bach has confirmed the two controversial boxers thrown out of previous boxing tournaments for having male XY chromosomes are women, not trans.

Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting is declared victorious by Porto Rico's referee Emanuel Ferreira at the end of her fight against Uzbekistan's Sitora Turdibekova in the women's 57kg preliminaries round of 16 boxing match at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Picture: Mohd Rasfan/AFP

Olympic officials have confirmed the two controversial boxers at the centre of the biggest Paris Olympic scandal have differences in sexual development but have no plans to take action to protect the women’s sport because “they aren’t that good”.

Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting were thrown out of the 2023 world championships because testing showed they had male XY chromosomes, according to International Boxing Association officials.

On Saturday, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach blamed the media for the imbroglio, saying “both women have lost a number of fights, Imane lost nine fights in recent years and there was never an issue about this.”

Bach said “To put to an end (to the controversy) is up to you (the media) not up to us’’.

The IOC insists it will not change its boxing rules, which only demand a passport listing the competitor as being female, and has ruled out “pretty disgraceful” sex testing, which was used up until the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Sources have told NewsCorp that even if the sex testing was introduced, the Olympic Movement wouldn’t act on results because they have a different definition of a woman, which includes XY athletes such as trans women and DSD athletes.

Most scientists categorise females, genetically, as people born with XX chromosomes. But under the IOC’s rules gender and sex have been conflated.

The image of the Games has been impacted by this issue, as well as Bach allowing the Dutch officials to select a convicted child rapist Steven Van de Velde to compete in beach volleyball.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach. Picture: Steph Chambers/Getty Images

Bach, a man, said: “Lets be very clear here, we are talking about women’s boxing, and we have two boxers born as women, have been raised as women who have passports as woman and competed for many years as women. This is the clear definition of a woman, there was never any doubt about them being a woman, what we see now is some want to own the definition of who is a woman.’’

However Bach became confused about the issue himself, when he claimed the two boxers were not DSD athletes but he had meant to say they were not trans athletes.

DSD athletes are genetically male often with genetic irregularities of internal testes and high testosterone levels but who may have a female outward appearance.

“He was not saying they are not DSD,’’ the Olympic official clarified about Bach’s comments on the boxers.

Bach referred to the IOC’s 2021 guidelines on gender identity which he insisted were drawn up based on scientific evidence.

These rules say there is no presumption of advantage held by DSD and trans women – despite what other female boxers have claimed about the power of the hitting and fears of their safety in the ring. Italian Angela Carini surrendered her bout to Khelif 46 seconds into the first round fight on Thursday, and in between sobs saying: “I had never been hit so hard in my life. I am heartbroken because I am fighter, my father taught me to be a warrior”.

Trans and DSD athletes are allowed to compete in women’s categories unless there is evidence showing a disproportionate competitive advantage and/or unpreventable risk.

Bach added: “Every woman who is a woman according to the rules is a woman is allowed … this is the only base on which you can come to proper decision, you can’t poll social media, everybody in our world apparently feels obliged say everything to anything without considering the sometimes very complex circumstances.”

Another Olympic official told NewsCorp that “intersex athletes do not have a natural advantage, you can see that these women haven’t won every bout they have been in”, insisting that if they had been dominant in the event then “the rules allowing them to compete may have been changed”.