IOC cites transgender athletes’ passports in allowing them to play in Olympics

The International Olympic Committee has defended its decision to allow two transgender boxers to compete in this year’s games, as “they are women in their passports.”

The two athletes competing at the 2024 Paris Olympics are Lin Yu Ting from Taiwan and Imane Khelif from Algeria, both of whom have competed in the Olympics before and were disqualified by the International Boxing Association before receiving medals at the 2023 worlds in New Delhi. IOC spokesman Mark Adams has defended their inclusion in women’s boxing , as it would be “invidious and unfair” to discuss details of athletes.

“Everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules,” Adams said in a news conference. “They are women in their passports, and it’s stated that this is the case, that they are female."

The 2024 Paris Olympics boxing is following rules previously used by the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in Brazil, which Adams argued the two athletes are eligible under. He added that the IOC “fully supports” the athletes' inclusion.

Video of a previous boxing match Khelif partook in has been shared online, which showed Khelif fighting against a biological woman from Mexico in 2022. Women’s sports activist and Outkick host Riley Gaines condemned the IOC for glorifying “men punching women in the face with the intent of knocking them unconscious.”

“Imagine training your WHOLE life, getting good enough to earn a spot on the Olympic team, hoping to a win an Olympic medal ... then you're told you have to fight a man,” Gaines wrote on X. “That's the tragic reality for these women.”

Algeria Football Media, an account dedicated to news related to Algeria’s national team, pushed back against Gaines’s social media statements, claiming that “Khelif is attacked from all sides” at every sporting event, and that the Olympics is no different. The account added that these “attacks” can lead to “misinformation and unjust measures.”

Khelif is set to fight against Angela Carini from Italy on Thursday, with Lin fighting against Sitora Turdibekova from Uzbekistan the following day.

The 2024 Paris Olympics has already come under controversy for its opening ceremony Friday, which featured drag queens in the place of Jesus Christ and the disciples reenacting Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. The organizers have since issued a statement claiming they did not intend to offend religious groups, and that the opening ceremony was intended “to celebrate community tolerance.”

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Former President Donald Trump, along with many others , have condemned the opening ceremony, with the 2024 presidential candidate saying it was “a disgrace.” Should he win the 2024 election, he said the United States’s 2028 Olympic opening ceremony would not recreate The Last Supper “the way they portrayed it the other night.”

The Washington Examiner has contacted the IOC for comment.