Olympic champion Nicola Adams hits out in boxing gender controversy

Italian fighter Angela Carini abandoned her bout against Algeria’s Imane Khelif after 46 seconds on Thursday, saying she had “never felt a punch like this”.

Khelif was one of two fighters, along with Lin Yu-ting of Chinese Taipei, who are present at the Games in Paris having been disqualified from the World Championships last year by the International Boxing Association (IBA) for failing to meet gender eligibility criteria.

Adams, who won flyweight gold for Team GB in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, wrote on X on Friday: “After years of fighting for women’s boxing to even exist in the Olympics and then all the training they go through to get there it was hard to watch another fighter be forced to give up on her Olympic dreams.

“People not born as biological women, that have been through male puberty, should not be able to compete in women’s sport. Not only is this unfair it’s dangerous!”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which is administering the boxing event in Paris after stripping the IBA of recognition as the sport’s global federation last year, issued a statement on Thursday confirming that as with previous Games, the gender of athletes was based on their passports.

The IOC said “misleading information” had been reported about Khelif and Lin, and pointed out they had been competing in international boxing events for many years, including the Tokyo Games three years ago.

It described the IBA’s decision to disqualify them last year as “sudden” and “arbitrary” and having been made “without due process”.

Speaking on Friday, IOC spokesman Mark Adams described the issue as a “minefield”, saying: “There still is neither scientific nor political consensus on this issue.

“It’s not a black-and-white issue, and we would at the IOC be very interested to hear of such a consensus on this, and we would be the first to act should a common understanding be reached.

“I know some of the athletes who underwent sex tests in their teens. It was pretty disgraceful and luckily that is behind us. This is a minefield and unfortunately, as with all minefields, we want a simple explanation of how we can determine this. That explanation does not exist.”

Mark Adams wished Carini a swift recovery on behalf of the IOC and called for an end to the misinformation and vitriol that has proliferated online since Thursday’s bout.

“What I would urge is that we try to take the culture war out of this and actually address the issues and the people and think about the individuals concerned and the real damage that is being done by misinformation,” said Adams, who added the IOC is in close contact with Khelif.

“No one likes to see aggression online by anyone and we’ve had quite a few cases of online aggression against a whole range of athletes, and that is not acceptable. We would hope that that stops.

“The IOC is always trying to do a balance between inclusivity and fairness. That is a difficult one and something we’ll have to look at. But that is entirely different to what is going on here, which is a woman boxer being stigmatised and potentially forced out of a competition.”

On this issue of safety, he added: “Safety of the athletes is our number one concern. There are all sorts of safeguards, particularly in the combat sports to make sure that remains the case.”

The IBA has not given specifics regarding Khelif and Lin’s disqualification but said on Thursday the decision to disqualify had been based on “two trustworthy tests” at World Championships in Istanbul in 2022 and New Delhi in 2023.

“The IBA will never support any boxing bouts between the genders, as the organisation puts the safety and well-being of our athletes first,” a statement on its website read.

“We are protecting our women and their rights to compete in the ring against equal rivals, and we will defend and support them in all instances; their hopes and dreams must never be taken away by organisations unwilling to do the right thing under difficult circumstances.”

An earlier IBA statement on Wednesday confirmed the athletes had not undergone a testosterone examination.

Lin is in action on Friday against Sitora Turdibekova in the women’s 57kg category. Khelif is next due to fight against Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori on Saturday.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, who last month said “biology matters” in sport, told the BBC: “(The Khelif-Carini fight) was an incredibly uncomfortable watch for the 46 seconds that it lasted.

“And I know that there’s a lot of concern among women competitors about whether we’re getting the balance right.

“There is a role for Government to make sure they have got the guidance and the framework and the support to make those decisions correctly.”