IBA chief takes swing at IOC over Khelif controversy

The International Boxing Association has demanded the Olympic governing body apologize to athletes unfairly affected by its decision to allow controversial pugilist Imane Khelif to box at Paris 2024.

Among those deserving an apology from the International Olympic Committee, according to IBA, is Chinese boxer Yang Liu, who was overpowered by Khelif in a lopsided Olympic final on Aug 9 to lose the women's 66kg gold medal to the Algerian at the Paris Games.

IBA president Umar Kremlev, speaking at a news conference in Istanbul last week, reiterated his stance against the IOC's permission on Khelif's Olympic eligibility, hitting out at former Olympic chief Thomas Bach for ignoring the IBA's pre-Games warning of Khelif's abnormal gender test results.

"We informed the IOC and provided them the documents (of the test results), but they broke those rules," Kremlev, a Russian sports administrator, said through an interpreter at the conference, which was held to launch the IBA "Golden Era" development projects.

"In my opinion, not giving back the medal, but to protect our female sport, we require them to apologize to female boxers publicly.

"Thomas Bach and his team have to apologize to female boxers and then take their responsibility.

"Leave the medals to the true sportswomen that deserved it," said Kremlev, who had, in an earlier interview, urged the IOC to revoke Khelif's medal and award it to its "real owner".

Kremlev made the remarks amid heated debates over gender regulations in elite sports and an ongoing disagreement between the IBA and IOC in defining athletes' eligibility to compete in women's divisions.

At the center of the controversy are Khelif and another boxer, Lin Yu-ting of Chinese Taipei, who were both disqualified from IBA-sanctioned events before the Paris Olympics, after two rounds of gender testing reportedly found them possessing XY chromosomes.

They were allowed to compete in Paris, though, by the IOC, which prioritizes legal documentation, such as passport sex designation, over biological findings with its own gender identification rules.

Lin also won gold in Paris, defeating Poland's Julia Szeremeta to bag the women's 57kg title one day after Khelif's win.

Two rounds of blood analysis of the two boxers, first carried out during the 2022 IBA Women's World Championships in Istanbul, followed by a second taken before the 2023 worlds in New Delhi, returned with identical results that did not match the eligibility criteria for IBA women's events, according to the association.

With Bach stepping down from the IOC and new president Kirsty Coventry taking over, it seems the two organizations might finally find some common ground, at least in terms of gender-eligibility rules.

Coventry, the IOC's first ever female leader, hinted at a shift away from its current stance on gender-identification rules while addressing the topic of promoting women's sports at her first news conference since taking office on June 26.

She suggested that the IOC may take inspiration from other international sports federations, such as World Athletics, which restrict proven biological males from competing in women's sports.

However, Coventry said it's unlikely that the IOC's potential policy update would result in retroactively changing the results of past competitions involving athletes with gender-eligibility questions.

No gold medal would be returned to Yang, it seems.

The 32-year-old Chinese veteran, though, has vowed to move on, regroup and prepare herself for a second shot at the Olympic gold at Los Angeles 2028.

"There will be setbacks, for sure, on the path of pursuing your dreams, and moments when you feel you want to give up. That's when you need to hang in there and push through," Yang, a 2023 IBA world champion, said after defending her 66kg title at the national championships in April.

Kremlev welcomes the new IOC head's willingness to change.

"We urge the IOC to start a reform and update its system," he said in Istanbul.

"Now they have a new leader. I hope that she will start those reforms. When the Olympics respect those rules, it will become more relevant and exciting. They should rethink it and make the reforms."

Currently, the IBA has been excluded from the Olympic program, with its right to organize boxing tournaments at the Games stripped since Tokyo 2020, for "failing to implement reforms against corruption in governance and finance", according to an IOC statement.