Both boxers have been embroiled in a gender row at the Paris Olympics after Italian Angela Carini withdrew from her fight against Khelif after just 46 seconds last week, alleging that one of her punches “hurt me a lot”. Disqualified from the previous World Championships by the International Boxing Association for not meeting the federation’s gender criteria, the Algerian was still allowed to compete in the 2024 Games. 

The same applied to the Chinese Taipei boxer. This is because the International Olympic Committee, which does not recognize the IBA, has different rules regarding eligibility. The IOC only checks the athlete’s passport.

Hence, Khelif is set to compete in the 66kg semi-finals against Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannaphengon on Tuesday while Lin will face Turkiye's Esra Yildiz Kahraman on Wednesday in the 57kg semis.

After enduring increased criticism from the IOC and hoping to set the record straight, the IBA scheduled the Monday presser in which its president, Umar Kremlev, 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”.

In front of a packed auditorium pressing for answers after the case had gone viral and via an erratic online call, Kremlev went on to say that "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.”

Needless to say, neither the message nor the chaotic proceedings went over well with the general public and reviews for brutal, which sparked an official statement from the IBA just 24 hours after, in which it expressed its hope for further clarification and underlined the fact that this was a completely new situation for boxing and that it had, indeed, informed of both athletes’ disqualification in due time to the IOC.

The IBA detailed that Khelif had been competing since 2018 and Lin since 2017 and that the current management had been on top of “the problem” from the very first IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships it conducted in May 2022 in Istanbul, when it took over the reins from the outgoing leadership.

After amendments to its technical and competition rules a year later, its board of directors decided that competitions would be conducted only between male (individuals with chromosome XY). and female (individuals with chromosome XX) athletes and that participation of what it calls “differences of sexual development” athletes in boxing competitions were found dangerous for the health and security of the boxers.

The IBA statement detailed that the second row of tests in Delhi closed the gap as per the athlete’s eligibility and datelined its correspondence with the IOC back to June 2023, where former secretary general George Yerolimpos expressed his request to have “a technical meeting” with the Thomas Bach-led organisation and received a negative from its sports director, Kit McKonnell, 11 days after the letter was sent.

The boxing association also explained that Khelif appealed to the CAS back in April 2023 and that it paid its share of procedural costs “which demonstrates the good faith of IBA. Not many international federations agree to pay their share of costs in CAS proceedings.” 

The CAS terminated the case three months later because the Algerian boxer did not pay her share. The IBA stated that it maintained contact with Khelif to resolve the situation. The boxer provided several medical documents, which were examined by the IBA’s medical committee. The committee confirmed again that she was not eligible to participate in the women’s competitions and proceeded to remove her profile from the IBA’s database.

IBA officials revealed that the tests were “blood tests” but would not comment further on the matter. “These tests affect the private life of the person concerned and constitute medical information protected as personal data. 

"We are not allowed to publish these documents without the agreement of the person concerned. However, both Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting received a copy of these texts, and they never disputed it. They know these tests exist and it is not fake," the statement read.

During Tuesday’s press briefing, IOC spokesman Mark Adams declined to elaborate on what he called a “chaotic IBA press conference” while using air quotes but did underline again the Olympic movement’s stance regarding the need for a new global body for the sport. “What happened yesterday clearly demonstrates that boxing needs a new federation to run it," Adams said.

"If you ever needed any evidence at all that the IBA is unfit to run boxing, look at the key members of the IBA that took part in that travesty yesterday. It tells you everything you need to know. The sad thing is that boxing is an incredibly important Olympic sport, not only because it’s a great sport, but because it’s one of those sports that has real social aspect to it in areas that are underprivileged."

Adams insisted on the call “for a new federation, and the best recruiting sergeant would be that press conference yesterday".  "I would ask anyone who hasn’t seen it to please watch it because it would give you an idea of why we are in a desperate need of a federation that can take this forward," Adam continued.

"We have organised boxing here in Paris and Tokyo, but we are not a federation, obviously, and we need those national federations to come together. I believe some already have, and more since yesterday. Let’s hope they can bring it to LA 2028. We would love to see boxing in Los Angeles," he concluded.