After the debacle at the Paris Olympics where two boxers who reportedly have XY chromosomes battled for women’s boxing crowns, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Back told reporters that there was no “scientifically solid” method for determining whether an athlete is a man or a woman.
Referring to the 2028 Summer Olympics scheduled for Los Angeles, California, a reporter queried Bach, “There is no sign of the national federations sorting themselves out. Surely you must be worried boxing won’t be there in LA.”
“I will not speculate the position is very clear,” Bach replied. “The IOC will not organize boxing in LA without a reliable partner, and if these national federations want their athletes to be able to win Olympic medals, they have to organize themselves in a reliable international federation with good governments and respecting all the requirements the IOC puts on the International Olympic Federation.”
“In the IOC gender eligibility rules, it seems to be based on the fact that XYA athletes or DSD athletes don’t have a competitive advantage and we see here — ” another reporter began to ask.
DSD, or differences of sex development, were formerly called intersex disorders. But individuals suffering from the disorder still have either XX or XY chromosomes. Algeria’s Imane Khelif, who won the Olympic gold medal in the female welterweight division, has XY chromosomes, according to the International Boxing Association (IBA). The association also says that Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan, who has reached the finals of the women’s featherweight division, has XY chromosomes.
“Don’t mix, please, this with DSD,” Bach interrupted. “The question is pretty clear, and again, all the science, nobody can tell you at this moment where there is an advantage or no advantage. Here it is first and foremost about the question of a woman, yes or no. If you take further parameters. Look at the Caster Semenya case, which is still pending, and where the measures which have been applied have been considered by the European Court of Human Rights, as potentially violating human rights and therefore have been sent back to a Swiss court. There is, at this moment, there is no certainty.”
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“Will you commit to a review of your guidelines on this matter, given the controversy on this matter?” a reporter asked.
“We have said from the very beginning, if somebody is presenting us a scientifically solid system how to identify men and women, we are the first ones to do it,” Bach answered. “We do not like this uncertainty. We do not like it for the overall situation, for nobody. So we would be more than pleased to look into it, but what is not possible, is if somebody is ‘This is not a woman’ just by looking at somebody or by falling prey to a defamation campaign by not a credible organization with highly political interests.”
