The International Boxing Association (IBA) held a press conference earlier this week where the organization announced that two of the fighters competing in the Olympic women’s boxing event had failed a gender chromosome test. There has been substantial controversy surrounding two fighters, Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan and Imane Khelif of Algeria, who are transgender fighters competing in the women’s category.
Previously, the two fighters had failed IBA tests to determine their gender. Despite this, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had allowed Yu-ting and Imane Khelif to compete against biological females. Furthermore, the committee repeatedly released statements claiming the two fighters in question were females.
According to IBA CEO Chris Roberts, the test results for the fighters “demonstrated the chromosomes we refer to in competition rules that make both boxers ineligible.” However, the athletes were given the opportunity to appeal the test to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Both Yu-ting and Khelif declined to follow through with the appeal.
Former Chair of the IBA Medical Committee, Dr. Ioannis Filippatos, spoke to reporters, maintaining that biology cannot be altered. “Medicine is knowledge, it is not opinion,” Filippatos told the press. “One passport can give to us the opportunity to be men, and, tomorrow when I go back to Athens, it’s possible to go to my government and … change my name from Ioannis Filippatos to Ionnia Filippatos. That means I am a woman tomorrow? Please. The nature and the biological world do not change.”
As the former Chair of the IBA Medical Committee spoke to the press, he was attacked for his statements. “Why are you attack me?” the doctor repeatedly asked. Addressing the backlash from the reporters, Dr. Filippatos doubled down on his adherence to science, clearly stating that the blood test results indicated the fighter was a biological male. “The blood results look and say — the laboratories — that this boxer is male,” he said.
Despite the findings from the IBA, the Olympics have maintained that Khelif and Yu-ting are eligible to compete against women. “These athletes have been competing in senior competitions for six years with no issues,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams stated, as reported by ESPN. “These women were eligible for this contest, remain eligible for this contest and compete in this contest.”
Adams continued, “I cannot tell you if they were credible or not credible [gender tests] because the source from which they came was not credible and the basis for the tests was not credible. For that reason there was no consideration of whether they were correct or not correct because they had no bearing for the eligibility of boxing here.”
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Watch Dr. Ioannis Filippatos fend off reporters below:
The footage of the press conference drew numerous responses on social media. “I love how the IOC keeps insisting the IBA is a corrupt & illegitimate organization, when it was totally fine & legitimate all those years up until the point that they warned the IOC …” one person commented.
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.