There is a heated gender debate about the boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting at the Olympics. The International Boxing Association continues to pour oil on the fire.
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- A gender debate has flared up after the boxing match between Imane Khelif and Angela Carini.
- It is also a dispute between the boxing federation and the IOC.
- The boxing federation is now paying the defeated Carini 100,000 US dollars. That is the maximum she could have won in Paris.
The Italian boxer Angela Carini gave up her boxing match against Imane Khelif after 46 seconds on Thursday. A fierce gender debate erupted after the Algerian's lightning victory. Khelif was excluded by the boxing association IBA last year because she had failed an unspecified gender test.
The IOC, on the other hand, has no doubts that Khelif is a woman. And the defeated Carini has also apologized to her opponent for her behaviour after the fight.
However, the boxing federation is adding fuel to the fire by paying Carini prize money of 100,000 US dollars, half of which is to go to the athlete herself and the other half to her coach and her national federation on a pro rata basis. It is the same amount that Carini could have won as Olympic champion.
"I couldn't look at her tears," IBA President Umar Kremlev was quoted as saying in a statement from the association. The boxing association will protect all female boxers. "I don't understand why they are killing women's boxing. Only suitable female athletes should compete against each other in the ring for the sake of safety," he said, lashing out at the IOC.
Does boxing have a future at the Olympic Games?
Regardless of the heated gender debate and the still unresolved responsibility of the association, an Olympic boxing tournament is also to be held in Los Angeles in 2028. "We want boxing in the Olympic Games program. That is the goal, but only with a reliable partner," said IOC President Thomas Bach.
The International Olympic Committee is responsible for the organization of the boxing tournament in Paris, just as it was three years earlier in Tokyo. The reason for this is the suspension of the International Boxing Association (IBA) in 2019, which has since been excluded. The IBA has been criticized for corruption, management problems and distortion of competition, but the current leadership around Russian President Umar Kremlev has reported "comprehensive reforms".
An appeal by the IBA was rejected by the International Court of Arbitration for Sport Cas. An association partner must be found at international level by the beginning of next year if boxing is to be an Olympic sport at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. As things stand, this is not the case.
In November, the new association World Boxing was founded in Frankfurt/Main, which hopes to be awarded the bid by the IOC in the near future. "We now have 38 member federations and the number is growing every week. We need between 60 and 70 to be approved by the IOC. That is feasible by September," said General Secretary Simon Toulson on ZDF.
