A CLASSIC case of questionable ruling or the right decision?
Two boxers, including the Chinese favored to bag the gold in Nesthy Petecio’s weight class, have been greenlighted by the International Olympic Committee to see action in the Paris Olympics despite questions on their gender.
The IOC deemed Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu-ting and Imane Khelif of Algeria eligible for the Games despite the two getting disqualified from last year’s World Champion¬ships for failing gender eligibility tests.
“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 in accordance with rules 1.4 and 3.1 of the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit,” the IOC said in a statement.
“The PBU endeavored to restrict amendments to minimize the impact on athletes’ preparation and guarantee consistency between Olympic Games.”
Khelif was banned hours before her gold medal bout at the women’s World Championships in New Delhi last year after she failed to meet the International Boxing Association’s eligibility criteria.
Lin was also stripped of her bronze medal in the same tilt after she failed to meet the criteria.
At the time, IBA president Umar Kremlev told Russian news agency TASS that the boxers had “XY chromosomes.”
The World Championships was organized by the IBA, which is no longer a federation recognized by the IOC.
The boxing competition at the Paris Olympics is being organized by the Paris Boxing Unit (PBU), an ad-hoc unit established by the IOC’s Executive Board.
