Athletes Disqualified From World Championships For ‘XY Chromosomes’ Will Compete In Olympic Women's Boxing

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Last year, two athletes were disqualified from The Women’s World Boxing Championships after questions surfaced regarding their biological sex. This week, those two athletes will compete in the Paris Olympics — as women.

As reported by Reduxx, both Algeria's Imane Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-Ting were removed from the 10-day event in New Delhi, India, in March 2023. Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association (IBA), announced the disqualifications after he met with executives to discuss "fairness among athletes and professionalism." He said that after "a series of DNA-tests," the IBA "uncovered athletes who were trying to fool their colleagues and pretend to be women."

Kremlev told TASS News that the tests had proven the athletes in question "had XY chromosomes and were thus excluded from the sports events."

Khelif had been set to take on Yang Liu of China in the welterweight final but was removed before the gold medal fight. In a statement, the IBA wrote that Khelif was DQ-ed "due to the failure to meet the IBA eligibility criteria." But the Algerian Olympic Committee claimed the disqualification was just a "conspiracy" to prevent Algeria from having a gold medal in boxing.

A second boxer, Lin Yu-Ting, was similarly disqualified by the IBA and stripped of a bronze medal.

Lin had previously won five gold medals in women’s boxing tournaments, including two at the World Championships in 2018 and 2022.

While neither boxer has explicitly identified as transgender, it is suspected that both are impacted by a Difference of Sexual Development (DSD) — meaning they have both male and female genitalia — according to Reduxx.

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But despite the questions surrounding their biological sex, both athletes will compete in the women's events in Paris. Khelif is scheduled to fight Italy’s Angela Carini on August 1, while Lin Yu-Ting is set to be matched the next day.

There are no blanket Olympic rules on transgender athletes or testosterone levels. Instead, it is left to the governing bodies of each sport to decide. In the FAQ for the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit, no gender eligibility guidelines are specified, indicating that individual nations were given the power to deem their own athletes eligible.