The International Olympic Committee (IOC) clarified their eligibility and entry regulations for the boxing tournament of the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024 after the controversial match between Italy’s Angela Carini and Algeria’s Imane Khelif. Notably, Carini abandoned her welterweight round of 16 against Khelif after just 46 seconds on Thursday, August 1.
Carini was hit on her nose by the Algerian boxer which even dislodged her chinstrap, leaving her bleeding profusely. As a result, she abandoned the game after a 30-second discussion with her coach and revealed that Khelif’s punches were the hardest she had encountered in her career.
Also Read: Why Italian boxer Angela Carini abandoned Olympic fight in 46 seconds: Explained
For the unversed, Khelif failed a gender eligibility test at the 2023 World Championships. She was disqualified ahead of her gold medal bout in New Delhi last year for not meeting the International Boxing Association’s (IBA) eligibility criteria. The incident has caused a wild uproar in the sporting fraternity, with people bashing the IOC for their eligibility criteria.
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Following the controversy, the apex body has condemned the abuse directed at Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting. In a statement, the IOC stated that the gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport. It also informed that the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit used the Tokyo 2020 boxing rules as a baseline to develop its regulations for Paris 2024 to guarantee consistency between Olympic Games.
Further ahead in the statement, the IOC condemned the misleading information about two female boxers surfacing in the media. It also called their disqualification at the IBA World Championships in 2023 an ‘arbitrary decision without any due process.’
The IOC further said that the National Boxing Federations must reach a consensus around a new International Federation for boxing to be included on the sports programme of the Los Angeles Olympics 2028.
Below is the complete joint statement by IOC and Boxing Unit.
“Every person has the right to practise sport without discrimination.
All athletes participating in the boxing tournament of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations set by the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit (PBU) (please find all applicable rules here). As with previous Olympic boxing competitions, the gender and age of the athletes are based on their passport.
These rules also applied during the qualification period, including the boxing tournaments of the 2023 European Games, Asian Games, Pan American Games and Pacific Games, the ad hoc 2023 African qualifying tournament in Dakar (SEN) and two world qualifying tournaments held in Busto Arsizio (ITA) and Bangkok (THA) in 2024, which involved a total of 1,471 different boxers from 172 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), the Boxing Refugee Team and Individual Neutral Athletes, and featured over 2,000 qualification bouts.
The PBU used the Tokyo 2020 boxing rules as a baseline to develop its regulations for Paris 2024. This was to minimise the impact on athletes’ preparations and guarantee consistency between Olympic Games. These Tokyo 2020 rules were based on the post-Rio 2016 rules, which were in place before the suspension of the boxing International Federation by the IOC in 2019 and the subsequent withdrawal of its recognition in 2023.
We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The two athletes have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category, including the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships and IBA-sanctioned tournaments.
These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process.
According to the IBA minutes available on their website, this decision was initially taken solely by the IBA Secretary General and CEO. The IBA Board only ratified it afterwards and only subsequently requested that a procedure to follow in similar cases in the future be established and reflected in the IBA Regulations. The minutes also say that the IBA should “establish a clear procedure on gender testing”.
The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure – especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years.
Such an approach is contrary to good governance.
Eligibility rules should not be changed during ongoing competition, and any rule change must follow appropriate processes and should be based on scientific evidence.
The IOC is committed to protecting the human rights of all athletes participating in the Olympic Games as per the Olympic Charter, the IOC Code of Ethics and the IOC Strategic Framework on Human Rights. The IOC is saddened by the abuse that the two athletes are currently receiving.
The IBA’s recognition was withdrawn by the IOC in 2023 following its suspension in 2019. The withdrawal of recognition was confirmed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). See the IOC’s statement following the ruling.
The IOC has made it clear that it needs National Boxing Federations to reach a consensus around a new International Federation in order for boxing to be included on the sports programme of the Olympic Games LA28.”