PARIS (AP) — The International Boxing Association raised new questions while struggling to answer others Monday at a shambolic news conference about the opaque eligibility tests that led the Olympics-banned governing body to abruptly suspend Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting from last year’s world championships, a decision that has fueled online abuse against the women during the Paris Games.
The IBA still refused to disclose nearly all details about the tests and their results or methodologies leading to the disqualifications of Khelif of Algeria and Lin of Taiwan. Those decisions catalyzed a major uproar in Paris around the two boxers, who have clinched Olympic medals despite facing rampant misconceptions about their gender amid a wider divide over gender regulations and identity in sports.
Chris Roberts, the IBA’s secretary general and CEO, claimed that the Olympic committees of Algeria and Taiwan wrote letters to the IBA asking them not to disclose information about the boxers at the news conference in Paris.
What information it did reveal about the tests was mostly not flattering to the governing body, which received an unprecedented banishment from the Olympics last year following decades of troubled governance and longstanding accusations of a thorough lack of normal transparency.
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The former chair of its medical committee, a Greek obstetrician named Ioannis Filippatos, said the IBA did blood tests on only four of the hundreds of fighters at the 2022 world championships. The IBA said it tested Khelif and Lin in response to complaints from other teams, apparently acknowledging an uneven standard of profiling that is considered widely unacceptable in sports.
IBA President Umar Kremlev, an acquaintance of Russian President Vladimir Putin who spoke on a patchy Zoom from Russia, then said through a translator that the tests showed elevated levels of testosterone.
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That appears in direct contradiction with an IBA statement from July 31, when it said Khelif and Lin “did not undergo a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognized test, whereby the specifics remain confidential.”
Roberts, who is second in command to Kremlev at the IBA, repeatedly said observers should “read between the lines” about the tests while declining to give more details.
The IBA also gave an explanation as to why the boxers could have failed an eligibility test in 2022, but were somehow not suspended from competition until the middle of the world championships a full year later. Roberts said there wasn’t time to administer a required second test at the 2022 tournament, and the IBA could only do two tests at the 2023 championships.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said last week that the IBA gave the Olympic body the results of the testing done on Khelif and Lin, but it was “so flawed that it was impossible to deal with.”
As on his social media accounts, Kremlev spent much of his virtual speaking time attacking the IOC and President Thomas Bach, who has called the “hate speech” against the two boxers “totally unacceptable.” Kremlev was unable or unwilling to discuss the science behind the IBA’s tests in technical terms.
“We are going to open prosecution against Mr. Bach and others,” Kremlev said. “I will call upon all the prosecutors, all the judges in order to investigate this corruption coming from him. IBA will always protect and defend athletes.”
The IOC said in a statement later Monday that “the content and the organization of the IBA press conference tells you everything that you need to know about this organization and its credibility.”
The backlash against Khelif and Lin ballooned after Khelif’s first opponent, Angela Carini of Italy, tearfully abandoned their bout after just 46 seconds. Carini later said she regretted her actions and wished to apologize to Khelif.
The IBA said it wanted to give $3.1 million in prizes to top Olympic performers this summer in another defiance of the IOC, with Kremlev noting last week that he also wanted to reward the fighters, coaches and federations who lost to Khelif and Lin.
The Italian Boxing Association said Sunday that it won’t accept the IBA’s money, while the father of quarterfinalist Pihla Kaivo-oja of Finland said Monday that his daughter also wouldn’t accept it.
“It is quite clear that Putin’s money is not to be taken,” Juha Kaivo-oja told the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper.
The IBA said it called the news conference in Paris to answer questions and provide details about the tests that have fueled the extraordinary scrutiny of Khelif and Lin, who will both fight for medals this week at Roland Garros. Khelif appears in the 66-kilogram semifinals Tuesday night, while Lin fights in the 57-kilo semifinal Wednesday.
The IBA’s event, however, began an hour late and was riddled with technical problems and lengthy rants about issues unrelated to the fighters. There were boos and shouted questions. It ended with frustrated reporters walking away from one of Kremlev’s anti-IOC broadsides on the giant video board behind the dais to interview a small group of Khelif supporters.
The group included Khelif’s teammate, Roumaysa Boualam, an African Games champion boxer and a two-time Olympian who fought in Paris.
“Anyone who was portrayed like (Khelif) has been portrayed would feel angry and frustrated,” Boualam said. “She has been affected by everything, as anyone would. But she will do her talking in the ring.”
Khelif spoke at length Sunday night with SNTV, a sports video partner of The Associated Press. She said the wave of hateful scrutiny she is facing “harms human dignity” and called for an end to bullying athletes.
Both Khelif and Lin eventually decided not to appeal their disqualifications from the world championships last year to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, a difficult process that typically costs more than $40,000.
Roberts said the IBA has “paid the majority of the costs” in other cases where boxers wish to appeal a ruling, but athletes must pay an unspecified part of it, sometimes leading them to give up because of the financial burden.
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