“Hate speech” against female boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting at the Olympic Games is “totally unacceptable,” International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said.
“We will not take part in a politically motivated culture war,” Bach said at a news conference.
Algerian Khelif and Taiwanese Lin have been under global scrutiny for days because of their gender. Both women were disqualified from the 2023 World Championships.
The Russian-led International Boxing Association, which has been banned from the Games by the IOC after a years-long dispute, withdrew them from the world championships held 16 months ago in India, arguing that gender testing was not specific and had been proven.
“We have two boxers who were born women, have been raised as women, have a female passport and have competed for many years as women,” Bach said. “Some people want to appropriate the definition of who a woman is.”
Both Khelif and Lin competed at the 2021 Tokyo Games and did not win medals.
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