To say the official message did not ring through on Monday would be a notable understatement, as reporters struggled to find clear answers from IBA officials in a chaotic address that featured secretary general Chris Roberts, European Boxing Confederation president Ioannis Filippatos, coaches committee chair Gabrielle Marteli and surprise online guest Umar Kremlev himself, the federation’s president and ferocious Thomas Bach critic.

The International Olympic Committee’s boss had attacked the now-banned boxing federation over the weekend, alleging that it was not trustworthy, and the former Russian boxer did not hold back any punches, though very few seemed to land.

Amidst a myriad of technical issues that spelled a ‘last-minute decision’ and a confusing initial intervention from Filipatos, himself a doctor, regarding supposed medical aspects of the case that has gone viral, no real evidence was delivered that Khelif and Lin Yu-ting indeed presented conclusive gender eligibility concerns after being disqualified in the World Championships held in Delhi in 2023.

The controversy that started then and has erupted as one of the main stories of the 2024 Paris Olympics after the Carini bout hit the fan on Monday as the IBA attempted to address the issue.

 Having endured increased criticism from the IOC and hoping to set the record straight, it instead delivered a mixed bag of innuendo and not-so-veiled insinuations as Kremlev grabbed the microphone via an erratic online feed and stated that, “We have genetic tests showing that these are men. We have not checked what’s between their legs. There are doctors and medics who can verify these things. We don’t know whether they were born like that or changes were made”.

The IBA president went on to say “I wasn’t present when she (Khelif) was born in the Algerian maternity. We saw no papers of a maternity house or deep checks of their bodies. If I was accused of this, I would bring over all the documents and go through all checks to prove I am a real man.”

A clean-cut, well-scripted and under-control public address this was not. And with a jammed press core pressing for answers from the stripped-down boxing association and questionable interventions from others in attendance, Roberts struggled to explain that the IBA intended to protect the athletes above all after various national Olympic committees had expressed their suspicions that the involved boxers were, in reality, male.

“I’m not a scientist but male boxers have boxed as female boxers in the past. We have global rules so we can only follow those,” he stated, pointing out that the two test results from Delhi and the 2022 Istanbul championship were conclusive enough for the IBA but that he had “received letters today from various NOCs saying we can’t announce the results”. As for the Khelif-Carini fight, Roberts labelled it “a disaster” insisting that “it was disappointing for both boxers.”

Alleging the said confidentiality clause, expected evidence of such tests was not provided over the course of two muddled hours. 

IBA’s officials faced a barrage of questions regarding the handling of the case; much like the IOC had in the leadup to the impromptu media session in which Filippatos, former medical committee chairman, claimed "abnormalities" were detected in the 2022 blood tests. 

After a second test in 2023 to confirm the initial findings, both were disqualified and the EUBC president explained that "the medical result, blood result, looks… say that these boxers are male."

The IOC had previously criticised the now-banned IBA over this issue through spokesman Mark Adams. "There's a whole range of reasons why we don't want to deal with it: partly confidentiality, partly medical issues, partly that there was no basis for the test in the first place, and partly that sharing this data is also very much against the international rules," he stressed.

Kremlev responded that the IBA had serious doubts after the second test results in Delhi. “The testing shows that testosterone level was very high for both,” he detailed while arguing he was campaigning for women’s rights. 

“If people have doubts about whether they had some changes later in their life, they have their private rights. We don’t know whether changes were made, we don’t have that information. If they need psychological support, we can provide them with that. We don’t say whether they are good or bad. We just want them to abide by the rules.”

As the conversation spiralled into support for Khelif from some Algerian audience members at the presser, the IBA boss insisted that the IOC’s passport eligibility rule was flawed. 

He then went off on a tangent against Bach and expressed his love and support for the African country despite not straying from his initial thoughts on Khelif who is set to compete in the 66kg semi-finals against Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannaphengon on Tuesday.

“There is no proof of course that this woman was transgender or an artificially made woman. We didn’t say that”, he emphasised. “She might be, maybe not. But the athletes themselves have to take responsibility and take the blood tests. They can do that in any hospital and then that question will be closed and we will be able to understand whether there was a transgender operation or she was born as a woman or a man and became a woman. The chromosomes can prove it.”

Roberts expressed that the controversy “wasn’t anything that we wanted. We delivered the test information to the IOC and they haven’t done anything with it because they believe in their own criteria, which is the passport. We never intended to raise any issues because this is not our event. We are now here because the media has questions.”

As for Martelli, his statement was brief but to the point. “In boxing, we preach safety first, then behaviour, procedures and rules. If we lose because of an unfair advantage, it has consequences. We teach the athletes the biomechanics of the knockout because people can die. It’s not discrimination, just the rules”, he underlined.

Lin will face Turkey's Esra Yildiz Kahraman on Wednesday in the 57kg semi-finals.