Revealed! The shocking reason why IOC allowed ‘biologically male’ boxers to compete against women

New Delhi: The Paris 2024 Olympics has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. From robberies to rape to sabotage attempts to weather adversities, the 33rd edition of the Summer Games has faced never-seen-before problems. And just when it looked like things were getting back on track, a new issue rocked the Paris Games.

A massive ‘gender row’ erupted in women’s boxing competition on Thursday when a ‘biologically male’ badly hurt a women boxer, forcing her to withdraw after just 46 seconds.

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif’s controversial win sparked a furious row about gender eligibility rules in sports

With blood dripping from her nose, Italian pugilist Angela Carini retired hurt and collapsed to her knees before crying inconsolably in the middle of the ring following a tragic end to her Olympic dream.

The controversy drew furious reactions from politicians, sports personalities, authors and fans, who questioned the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) eligibility criteria that allowed Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who fights on Friday at 57kg, to compete in the women’s competition.

Both boxers were disqualified from the 2023 women’s World Champion­ships in New Delhi after failing to meet the reliability criteria. International Boxing Association (IBA) president, Umar Kremlev, said their DNA tests had “proved they had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded”.

XY chromosomes are typically found in males and following the findings of the DNA of both boxers, IBA disqualified them from the world championship last year.

So how exactly did the ‘disqualified’ boxers qualified to feature in the Paris 2024 Olympics?

While the World Championship was organised by the IBA, the boxing competition at the Paris 2024 Games is being organised by the Paris Boxing Unit (PBU), an ad-hoc unit of the IOC’s Executive Board.

The IOC, which defended both the boxers, said the rules of eligibility this year were based on those of the Tokyo Games in 2021 and cannot be changed during a competition.

IOC spokesman, Mark Adams, said “Everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with competition eligibility rules. They are women in their passports and it’s stated in there that they are female.”

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 Algerian boxer Imane Khelif’s controversial win over Angela Carini sparked a furious row about gender eligibility rules in sports.  Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today