SG Talk

The International Boxing Association has accused the IOC of corruption, insisting two controversial fighters have male biology and should be banned from the Paris Games.

Extraordinary scenes unfolded in the Olympic host city as the organisation attempted to stage a press conference involving global media.

IBA President Umar Kremlev dialled into the Paris event via video link from Russia and launched a savage attack on the International Olympic Committee.

“They are destroying the sport, especially female sport, and as chairman of the IBA I truly believe that we have put the destiny of this sport in somebody else’s hands,” he said.



The IBA said it had conducted gender testing on Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Lu-Ting in 2022 and 2023 after concerns were raised by coaches and other boxers.

“The trainers told us they are genetically stronger, you have to do something so they approached us and we asked them to run the blood tests and double check what the situation was,” he said.

“We saw the outcomes of these blood tests.  When it comes to gender testing we know that in this testing they were very different from the usual woman’s genetic testing.”

IBA chief executive Chris Roberts said the organisation had received letters from the Algerian and Taiwanese Olympic committees ahead of the press conference, demanding the gender test not be publicly released.

But he confirmed the tests had found the boxers were not eligible to compete in the women’s competition.

“It demonstrated the chromosomes were XY, that made both boxers ineligible, that was further ratified (and it was decided) to remove both boxers from the competition,” he said.

Jin satki