Bach: ‘Women boxing gender row, politically motivated culture war’

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President, Thomas Bach, has defended boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria, and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan amid controversy over their gender, stating that they both met the “clear definition of a woman” and underlined that “we are not going to engage in a politically motivated culture war.”

Bach’s statement comes amid a fierce gender row over the two in the boxing event at the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympics. The controversy erupted after Algeria’s Khelif defeated Italy’s Angela Carini in 46 seconds in the welterweight Round of 16. Boxer Lin Yu-Ting was another athlete at the centre of the controversy alongside Khelif. The Chinese Taipei fighter also won her women’s featherweight (-57kg) unanimous decision over Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova.

Bach condemned the “hate speech” directed at both athletes and insisted there was no doubt about their status as women. “We have two female boxers who were born as women, who were raised as women, who have women’s passports, and who have been competing as women for many years,” Bach said. “That’s the clear definition of a woman.

“What we see now is that some people want to hijack the definition of a woman,” the German said. “I can only invite them to come up with a new definition based on the science of who is a woman and how can someone who was born, grew up, and competed as a woman not be considered a woman. If you come up with something, we are willing to look at it, but we are not going to engage in a politically motivated culture war”, he added.

Bach insisted the controversy was not a transgender issue and called for respect for female boxers. “Let me say that what is happening in this context on social media with all this hate speech, aggression and abuse