The Sports Administration yesterday protested the International Boxing Association’s (IBA) stance on a gender row involving a Taiwanese fighter at the Paris Games, saying the nation’s Olympic committee was considering filing a lawsuit.
A storm erupted over the participation of Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) and Algeria’s Imane Khelif at the Paris Olympics when Khelif’s Italian opponent pulled out of their bout less than a minute into the fight after taking a barrage of punches.
On Sunday, Lin beat Svetlana Staneva of Bulgaria via a unanimous decision in a featherweight quarter-final fight.
Photo: CNA
The IBA on Monday said that Lin and Khelif had been disqualified from last year’s World Championships after a sex chromosome test ruled both of them ineligible.
“The Sports Administration seriously protests the International Boxing Association’s continued publication of false information, obscuring the facts, and attempting to interfere with the normal conduct of the event regardless of the rights and interests of athletes,” the agency said in a statement.
“The Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee has also appointed a lawyer to issue a warning letter to the IBA. It reserves the right to take recourse and will file a lawsuit if necessary,” it added.
Photo: Reuters
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has rejected the results of the IBA-ordered tests as arbitrary and illegitimate, saying there was no reason to conduct them.
“We have two boxers who were born as women, raised as women, who have passports as women, and who have competed for many years as women and this is a clear definition of a woman,” IOC president Thomas Bach said on Saturday.
The dispute has revived a debate over the balance between fairness and safety, particularly in women’s sports, where differences in sexual development can result in a competitive advantage that might prove dangerous.
The boxing competition at the Paris Olympics is taking place under IOC rules after it stripped the IBA of its status as the sport’s global governing body over governance and finance concerns.
The IOC says the IBA is a discredited organization, mired in financial opaqueness and compromised by ties to the Russian leadership.
At the IBA news conference, its president, Umar Kremlev, also said: “Taiwan is a part of China.”
“China is one of my favorite countries,” he added.
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