Paris Olympics: Taiwan considering lawsuit over boxing federation’s gender row stance

Taiwan’s Sports Administration protested on Tuesday against the International Boxing Association’s (IBA) stance on a gender row involving one of its fighters at the Paris Games, saying its Olympic committee was considering whether to file a lawsuit.

A storm erupted over the participation of Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting and Algeria’s Imane Khelif at the Olympics when Khelif’s Italian opponent pulled out of their bout less than a minute into the fight after taking a barrage of punches.

Lin beat Svetlana Kamenova Staneva of Bulgaria via unanimous decision in a featherweight quarterfinal fight on Sunday.

The IBA said on Monday that Lin and Khelif had been disqualified from the 2023 World Championships after a sex chromosome test ruled both of them ineligible.

“The Sports Administration seriously protests the International Boxing Association’s continued publication of false information, obscuring the facts, and attempting to interfere with the normal conduct of the event regardless of the rights and interests of athletes,” the body, which is part of Taiwan’s education ministry, said in a statement.

“The Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee has also appointed a lawyer to issue a warning letter to the IBA. It reserves the right to take recourse and will file a lawsuit if necessary.”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has rejected the results of the IBA-ordered tests as arbitrary and illegitimate, saying there was no reason to conduct them.

“We have two boxers who were born as women, raised as women, who have passports as women and who have competed for many years as women and this is a clear definition of a woman,” IOC President Thomas Bach said on Saturday.

The dispute has revived debate over the balance between fairness and safety, particularly in women’s sports, where differences of sexual development can result in a competitive advantage that might prove dangerous.

Also read | Barred boxing federation says Khelif failed chromosome test

The boxing competition at Paris 2024 is taking place under IOC rules after it stripped the IBA of its status as the sport’s global governing body over governance and finance concerns.

The IOC says the IBA is a discredited organisation, mired in financial opaqueness and compromised by ties to the Russian leadership.

At the IBA news conference on Monday, IBA chief Umar Kremlev also said: “Taiwan is a part of China”.

“China is one of my favourite countries,” he added.

Taiwan competes at the Olympics as Chinese Taipei to avoid objections from China, which claims the democratically governed island as its own territory.

Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.