It was during the Olympic Games in Paris that the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif's participation became very noticed. Khelif was accused of being a man – despite being born a woman and having competed against women for several years.
The discussion took off from the fact that Khelif during the World Championship 2023 was deprived of a victory with reference to a gender test. The gender test was however never made public by the organizers – the largely Russian-led boxing organization Iba (International Boxing Association) – which has been excluded from the IOC.
Want to find consensus
It was with a large majority that we decided that we will protect the female classes. And with that, we will review the eligibility in the classes and we will put together a group of experts to investigate the matter, said Coventry and continued:
The IOC will take a leading role in the matter and we will gather the international sports organizations and ensure that we can find consensus on the issues.
Several noticed cases
Another very noticed saga has been the case of the South African athlete Caster Semenya. Semenya is hyperandrogenic and has naturally high testosterone levels.
Semenya won Olympic Games gold on 800 meters both 2012 and 2016. But since the International Athletics Association (WA) introduced new testosterone rules in 2019, Semenya has not been able to run that particular distance because she has not wanted to lower her testosterone levels.
