Olympic Boxers Don’t Want to Talk About the Gender Controversy
The scene at Lin Yu-Ting's opening bout
Maybe Olympic boxing hysteria can remain calm for a moment.
For a day, at least?
Lin Yu-Ting, the Taiwanese boxer competing for the Chinese Taipei Olympic delegation defeated Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan in a unanimous decision in her opening bout at North Paris Arena on Friday. Unlike Khelif’s controversial quick victory over Italy’s Angela Carini yesterday, the Yu-Ting-Turdibekova fight was more tactical—the boxers bounced around the ring in the first round, sizing each other up—than brutal. Yu-Ting attacked with a flurry of punches in the second round, and when the referees announced the decision, both Yu-Ting and Turdibekova paid respect to each other’s corners. They did not, however, warmly embrace or acknowledge each other’s efforts, like other fighters did on Friday.
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The boxing gender battle has sort of taken over the Paris Games. International Boxing Association (IBA) president Umar Kremlev told a Russian news agency last year that tests proved Khelif as well as Algerian Imane Khelif “had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded” from the IBA’s 2023 Women’s World Championships in New Delhi. But the International Olympic Committee stripped the IBA of its status as world governing body for the sport last year, and is essentially administering the sport here in Paris as it did in Tokyo when the IOC had suspended the IBA. The IOC’s decision to permit Yu-Ting and Khelif to fight at the Games has sparked outrage in some circles, especially after Italy’s Carini withdrew from her fight with Khelif yesterday after just 46 seconds.
“A young female boxer has just had everything she’s worked and trained for snatched away because you allowed a male to get in the ring with her,” author J.K. Rowling tweeted in response to a video in which an IOC official extols mental-health services available to athletes. “You’re a disgrace, your ‘safeguarding’ is a joke and #Paris24 will be forever tarnished by the brutal injustice done to Carini.” (Social media users from Taiwan, in support of Yu-Ting, fired back at the Harry Potter writer on social media.)
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) also jumped into the fray. ”A real women [sic], Angela Carini, who trained for years to box at the Olympics is “defeated” by a real man pretending to be a woman,” she wrote to her 3.5 million followers on X. “HE is a fraud, an imposter, and a liar. Shame on EVERYONE who allows men to compete against women. Democrats support this.” Meanwhile, Khelif’s defenders have pointed out that she hails from Algeria, a country where it is illegal to be gay or transgender. And Carini has said her withdrawal was not a political statement: Khelif’s punch hurt her nose and face, she respected the IOC’s decision to permit Khelif to fight, and she apologized for not shaking Khelif’s hand.
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“I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke,” she said, according to Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport. “I don’t have anything against Khelif. Actually, if I were to meet her again I would embrace her.”
The IOC reiterated on Friday that neither Khelif nor Yu-Ting has identified as transgender. (Neither boxer identifies as intersex either.) “This is not a transgender case,” spokesperson Mark Adams said in Paris. Khelif, Adams said, was “born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport.” According to Taiwan news, New Taipei City Councilor Cho Kuan-ting said on Facebook that Yu-Ting was registered female at birth.
Khelif won a silver medal at the IBA’s 2022 championships; both Khelif and Yu-Ting competed in the Tokyo Olympics. Neither boxer won a medal. Adams called into question the veracity and protocol of the unspecified IBA test of the boxers; he said both athletes have been the subject of online abuse and called for a quieting down of heated rhetoric.
“People are fully entitled to their views,” Adams said. “The only plea I would make is that people make those views clear based on knowledge. Correct knowledge. I’ve seen a lot of misinformation around, on social media particularly. Which is damaging, if you put yourself in the position of those two boxers. Being put in the public spotlight, on this issue, I think it’s pretty emotionally damaging for them.”
Though the crowd at Friday’s bout seemed generally supportive, cheering Yu-Ting when the announcer introduced her at the start of the match, she rushed past reporters after her win. Turdibekova did not stop to talk to reporters either. Michaela Walsh of Ireland, after losing to Svetlana Kamenova of Bulgaria, told reporters she hadn’t been paying attention to the row. Alyssa Mendoza of the U.S. refused to comment after her loss to Brazil’s Jucielen Cerqueira Romeu, while Romeu maintained she’s just focused on her medal hopes.
The international interest in this story created a comical scene in the boxing “Mixed Zone,” or media interview area: dozens of journalists, iPhone recorders out, huddled around a fellow reporter who was attempting to translate comments, in Chinese, from Yu-Ting’s coach. We were all recording someone else’s interpretation of another recording, desperate for any morsel. None of this added much to the discussion.
Boxing’s governance issues have threatened the sport’s inclusion in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, which is a shame: the Olympics have helped launch the careers of all-time greats like Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Oscar de la Hoya. The IOC has accused the IBA of lacking transparency regarding the status of its financial relationship with Gazprom, the Russian state-owned energy company. IBA has said that the IOC has shown “zero respect for a fully functioning independent International Federation, along with its members, officials, coaches, and most importantly, our boxers.” Under the current Olympic rules, Yu-Ting and Khelif are permitted to compete because they’re listed as female on their passports.
Khelif faces Anna Luca Hamori of Hungary in the quarters of their 66-kg weight class tomorrow. On Sunday, Yu-Ting and Kamenova of Bulgaria will fight in a 57-kg quarterfinal.
This case is complicated and requires nuance. False outrage helps no one in the ring.