IBA Bombs Press Conference About Olympic Boxers’ Gender Test Failures
The International Boxing Association, the embattled organization that previously banned two female Olympic boxers after an unspecified “gender test,” conducted a chaotic press conference on Monday that featured Algerian protesters, off-topic rants from the organization’s Russian president, and little new information about why they disqualified the athletes, Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan.
The IBA was previously banned by the International Olympic Committee as its governing body of boxing in 2023 after years of corruption allegations and a match-fixing scandal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The IBA drew intense international scrutiny after another boxer opted to forfeit her match against Khelif—who was disqualified for competition as a woman at the IBA-run World Championships in 2023—after just 46 seconds last week at the Paris Olympics.