On Monday, the news came that Iba wants to sue the IOC after Algeria's Imane Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-Ting were allowed to compete at last year's Olympic Games in Paris.
They were excluded by the boxing federation from competing in the World Championship 2023, since Iba claimed that they did not pass a gender test, but the IOC said that the test was not valid and gave both boxers the green light in the Olympic Games, where both won gold.
Cut all ties
"It's just part of Iba's campaign against the IOC, which has been going on since Iba was excluded by the IOC," writes the International Olympic Committee in a response to the news agency AFP.
In the summer of 2022, the IOC made the decision that Iba would not be allowed to arrange OS qualification and OS competitions in Paris 2024 due to how the federation is governed, including financing and judging scandals. A little over a year later, the IOC cut all ties with the federation.
Iba's decision to take legal action against the IOC regarding the two boxers comes just a few days after US President Donald Trump signed a presidential decree that stops trans people from competing in women's and girls' sports competitions in the USA.
President Trump's order to ban trans people from women's sports validates Iba's efforts to protect the integrity of women's sports, said the Russian Iba chief Umar Kremlev according to AFP.
IOC: "Born as women"
The two female boxers are not trans athletes, writes the IOC in its response.
"They were born as women, grew up as women, and have competed in women's classes their entire boxing career".
The IOC emphasizes that Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting have been allowed to compete in World Championships arranged by the boxing federation and other Iba-sanctioned tournaments before "they suddenly became victims of an arbitrary decision from Iba".
