Two boxers whose eligibility to participate in women’s sports is openly contested won gold medals in the French capital.
The outgoing head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) hailed the “gender parity” of the Paris Games during the event’s closing ceremony on Sunday. His comments came after women’s boxing was embroiled in controversy at the Games due to questions over the eligibility of two competitors.
In his farewell speech, as the Olympic flame was being extinguished, Thomas Bach claimed the event in France was “the first Olympic Games delivered fully under our Olympic Agenda reforms: younger, more urban, more inclusive, more sustainable. The first ever Olympic Games with full gender parity.”
The Games were “a celebration of the athletes and sport at its best” and “Seine-sational,” Bach added, in a reference to the river that flows through the French capital.
Two boxers – Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of the Chinese Taipei team – won gold medals in their respective weight categories at the Games amid intense scrutiny. Both were cleared to compete despite being disqualified last year from the World Championships organized by the International Boxing Association (IBA) for failing sex verification tests.
Public backlash over their participation in Paris erupted after Italian boxer Angela Carini dropped out just seconds into her bout against Khelif, bursting into tears and stating that she had never been punched so hard.
Olympic officials stood by their decision to qualify Khelif and Lin, with Bach stating during a press conference: “if somebody is presenting us with a scientifically solid system how to identify men and women, we are the first ones to do it.” He insisted that the IOC would not “[fall] prey to a defamation campaign by a not credible organization with highly political interest.”
The verbal jab apparently targeted the IBA, which was dismissed as “Russia-linked” by defenders of the two boxers. It is headed by Russian Umar Kremlev and has gone against the tide in international sports by allowing Russian and Belarussian athletes to compete at its events.
As well as the IOC, most international sports federations have imposed various bans on Russia and Belarus over the Ukraine conflict. No similar restrictions were applied to nations engaged in hostilities elsewhere in the world during the Olympic Games.
On Saturday, Bach announced that he will not seek a new six-year term at the helm of the IOC, after his current one expires next year. He said the organization will be “best served with a change in leadership.”
