IBA holds chaotic news conference on Olympic boxing row

The International Boxing Association held a chaotic news conference on Monday which left more questions than answers over an eligibility row that has overshadowed boxing at the 2024 Olympics.

Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwanese fighter Lin Yu-ting are guaranteed at least bronze medals in the women’s competition in Paris, having been cleared to compete in the Games by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

That’s despite the pair being disqualified from the 2023 Women’s World Championships after the IBA, which organised the event, claimed they had failed gender eligibility tests.

The Russian-led IBA, which was stripped of its status as amateur boxing’s governing body by the IOC in 2019 because of fears over its governance and regulation, called a news conference in Paris during which president Umar Kremlev and chief executive Chris Roberts were expected to shed new light on the disqualifications.

But after technical difficulties delayed the start of the news conference that ran for more than 100 minutes, Kremlev and Roberts gave contrasting and often contradictory accounts about the disqualifications.

Roberts claims Khelif and Lin were first tested at the 2022 World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey but no action was taken as the results were “inconclusive”.

He said the fighters’ disqualifications from the following year’s World Championships in New Delhi, India came after the results showed they were “ineligible”, in accordance with the IBA rules.

“The results of the chromosome tests demonstrated both boxers were ineligible,” said Roberts.

But while Roberts said the pair had “chromosome tests”, Kremlev appeared to suggest the tests were to determine the fighters’ testosterone levels.

Testosterone is a hormone that can increase muscle mass and strength. Chromosomes carry genetic information including a person’s sex.

“They have very high levels of testosterone,” said Kremlev, who joined via video link and spoke through a translator.

“We got the test results that they allowed us to make and these test results show they have high levels of testosterone, like men.”

Kremlev, who also repeated previous criticism of IOC president Thomas Bach, added that if boxers “want to prove they were born women, they have to do it by themselves”.

The IBA said the tests were sent to two different laboratories that are accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).

However, Wada has told BBC Sport it does not oversee gender tests and its work only relates to anti-doping matters.

The IOC said last week the “aggression” aimed towards Khelif and Lin was “based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure”.

The BBC has not seen the results of the IBA eligibility tests and, as yet, has not been able to determine what they consisted of.

Many other sports – such as athletics, cycling and swimming – have banned transgender women from competing in women’s events and introduced more stringent criteria for athletes with difference of sex development.

But in boxing the IOC said competitors were eligible for the women’s division if their passports said they were female.

Earlier on Monday, IOC spokesperson Mark Adams again defended Khelif and Lin’s inclusion in the Paris Games.

“These athletes have been competing in senior competitions for six years with no issues,” said Adams.

“These women were eligible for this contest, remain eligible for this contest and compete in this contest.”

Khelif and her team have not yet responded to the IBA, but she has said: “I want to tell the entire world that I am a female, and I will remain a female.”

Algeria’s Olympic Committee (COA) has previously criticised “malicious and unethical attacks directed against our distinguished athlete, Imane Khelif, by certain foreign media”.

Neither Lin nor the Taiwanese Olympic Committee have commented.

BBC Sport’s Ade Adedoyin spoke to IBA chief executive Chris Roberts after Monday’s news conference.

Question: What were the tests you did in 2022?

Answer: “Tests, which are for gender testing, were in 2022 in Istanbul. Those results were done in the laboratory. The results that came out of that identified, in accordance with the rules, an ineligibility to compete.”

Q: They were blood tests?

A: “Yes, blood tests.”

Q: But you said those blood tests were inconclusive?

A: “Correct. For both boxers.”

Q: What did the second blood tests tell you?

A: “Exactly the same. It gave us the same information. With that information, it was then presented to our board of directors to decide, based on our eligibility criteria, what constitutes male and what constitutes female.”

Q: So to clarify, the tests you did in 2022 and 2023 were exactly the same?

A: “Yes, correct. They were done through laboratories.”

Q: What were those tests designed to show? Your president said they were for testosterone?

A: “It was the chromosome thing. It was to identify that. Effectively gender testing.”

Q: What do you mean?

A: “So basically what level of chromosome marries up with XX XY. Based on that criteria. You’ve seen that in technical competition rules. So if you look at that you’ll see what that means.”

Q: Umar Kremlev said you tested them for testosterone…

A: “No, the blood tests were done. It was based on the criteria set against… it was a gender test, blood test. I’m not going to state [Kremlev] was wrong.”

Q: He said elevated levels of testosterone…

A: “Well, there are elevated levels of testosterone in that testing. It brings out a couple of different things. It identifies different things in that test.”

Q: The doctor said they were ‘genetically male’. What does he mean?

A: “I don’t know. I don’t know what his point is on that. You’d have to ask him that. All I’m saying here is tests were conducted in Istanbul, tests were then conducted in India. Results came out. Ineligibility demonstrates against the criteria and therefore that’s why the boxers were removed from our tournament.”

Q: We hoped for clarity, can see you why confusion has been caused?

A: “We can only take from the tests what they produce. I can’t go into that detail.”

Q: We are still not exactly clear what the situation is…

A: “I think the situation here is… why don’t you ask the boxers? We can’t disclose this direct information. It may be worth asking the boxers themselves.”

Q: Kremlev said testosterone, you’re saying XY chromosome. We are not further forward in understanding…

A: “OK.”

Q: Was today shambolic?

A: “In what sense? That you didn’t get the information that was needed? We can send this information to you so you can see it.”

Q: The labs, were they Wada-accredited?

A: “Yes, accredited. With licence numbers. Correct. The media have brought all of this hype up. Nobody ever said Imane Khelif was a man or the Chinese Taipei boxer, not me.”

Q: But your doctor did? Your doctor said they were genetically male…

A: “What did the doctor say? Did he? OK.”