IOC president says ‘hate speech’ over gender at Paris Olympics unacceptable

IOC President Thomas Bach said Saturday the “hate speech” directed at boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting at the Paris Olympics is “totally unacceptable.”

“We will not take part in a politically motivated… cultural war,” Bach said at a news briefing.

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Khelif of Algeria and Lin of Taiwan have been subjected to days of global scrutiny about their gender. Both women were disqualified at the 2023 world championships.

The Russian-led International Boxing Association — which has been banished from the Olympics by the IOC in a yearslong dispute — removed them from the worlds 16 months ago in India citing gender-based tests that are still unspecified and unproven.

“We have two boxers who are born as women, who have been raised as women, who have a passport as a woman and have competed for many years as women,” Bach said. “Some want to own a definition of who is a women.”

Both Khelif and Lin competed at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and did not win medals.

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