Olympics-Italy and Taiwan weigh in on boxing gender row

(This Aug 2 story has been corrected to to say Differences of Sexual Development, not Differences of Sexual Disorder, in paragraph 7)

By Karolos Grohmann and Alessandro Parodi

PARIS (Reuters) – A gender dispute in boxing swirled on Friday as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni raised the issue with International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach and Taiwan expressed support for its boxer embroiled in the row.

Italian boxer Angela Carini pulled out of the Olympics mid-fight on Thursday after she sustained a series of crushing blows from her Algerian opponent Imane Khelif, who last year failed a gender eligibility test at the World Championships.

“During the face-to-face meeting (with Bach), the case of athlete Imane Khelif and the issue of rules to ensure fairness in sports competitions were also addressed,” Meloni’s office said, adding that the Italian government and the IOC would stay in contact over how to deal with the matter in the future.

Meloni said on Thursday that Carini’s bout against Khelif was not a fight among equals.

Along with Taiwan’s double world champion Lin Yu-ting, Khelif was cleared to fight in Paris after the IOC last year stripped the International Boxing Association (IBA) of its status as boxing’s governing body over governance issues, and took charge of the Paris 2024 boxing competition.

Both had been disqualified at the 2023 World Championships after failing IBA eligibility rules that prevent athletes with male XY chromosomes competing in women’s events.

Differences of Sexual Development are a group of rare conditions involving genes, hormones and reproductive organs. Some people with DSDs are raised as female but have XY sex chromosomes and blood testosterone levels in the male range.

‘MINEFIELD’

Taiwan’s presidential office and former president on Friday expressed support for Lin, who went on to win her featherweight round-of-16 bout against Uzbekistan’s Sidora Turdibekova on points by unanimous decision.

Pan Men-an, secretary-general for Taiwan’s presidential office, said on Facebook (NASDAQ:) it was wrong for Lin to be “subjected to humiliation, insults and verbal bullying just because of your appearance and a controversial verdict in the past”.

The IOC has said the IBA’s decision to disqualify the boxers last year was arbitrary and the main cause for the furore that has seen people including British author J.K. Rowling and billionaire Elon Musk criticising their participation in the Games.

“Are these athletes women? The answer is yes,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams told a news conference on Friday.

“The Algerian (boxer) was born female, registered as female, boxed as a female, and is a female on her passport. Scientifically this is not a man fighting a woman,” he said of Khelif.

“There is an awful lot of abuse and misinformed abuse going on online, we are in very close contact with the athletes (Khelif and Yu-ting) and their entourage,” he said.

Some sports have limited the levels of testosterone allowed for athletes competing in women’s competition, while others ban everyone who has been through male puberty.

“This is a minefield and as with all minefields we want a simple explanation. That explanation does not exist,” Adams said. “If we can get to a consensus, we would be happy to implement that,” he said.