In the first minute of her one-sided bout at the Paris Olympics 2024, Imane Khelif of Algeria commanded the undivided attention of political bigwigs, celebrities, and the entire sports fraternity.
The reason? Khelif's initial punch forced Italian boxer Angela Carini to exit the women's 66kg category pre-quarter-finals, igniting a broader debate on gender eligibility in sports.
Carini, who endured a heavy blow to her face within the first 30 seconds, summoned her coach to adjust her headgear.
The Italian boxer, bearing a suspected broken nose, approached her coach a second time and decided she had enough. Blood stained her shorts as she struggled to continue, recounting to reporters that her nose bled from the first hit.
Overwhelmed, Carini feared for her life during the brief yet brutal encounter with Khelif, a boxer who had failed a gender test prior to the Games.
Gender controversy reignited
The presence of Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, both disqualified from the 2023 World Championships for failing gender tests, reignited the debate over whether athletes with Differences of Sexual Development (DSD) should compete in women's events.
Despite their disqualification in New Delhi, the duo was permitted to box at the Paris Olympics. But why?
IOC's stance on gender eligibility
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) supported the boxers' right to compete, citing their female passports as sufficient proof of eligibility.
"They are women in their passports, and it’s stated that this is the case, that they are female," said IOC spokesperson Mark Adams at a Paris Olympics news conference. Thus, according to the IOC, a female passport equals eligibility to compete as a women at the Games.
The decision to allow Khelif and Lin to participate hinged on the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics rulebook, which remains the standard for the Paris Games.
Adams argued that discussing individual athletes' details would be "invidious and unfair," affirming that the rules set in 2016, which also applied to Tokyo 2020, deem the athletes eligible.
Path to Paris after disqualification
Khelif was barred from the gold-medal bout in New Delhi due to elevated testosterone levels, while Lin failed a “biochemical test.”
Lin, a youth world champion in 2013 and world champion in 2018, qualified for Paris after winning the Asian Games title.
Khelif, a quarterfinalist at the Tokyo Olympics, secured her spot by triumphing in an African qualifying tournament.
Changing rules and ongoing debate
Since the Tokyo Games, several sports bodies, including World Aquatics, World Athletics, and the International Cycling Union, have updated their gender rules, banning athletes who underwent male puberty from participating in women's competitions.
This policy shift has kept athletes like Caster Semenya, a two-time Olympic 800-meter champion, from competing in 800-meter events since 2019.
The 46-second bout between Carini and Khelif has intensified the gender debate in an Olympic edition featuring gender parity in boxing for the first time, with 124 men and 124 women boxers.
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