International Olympics Committee (IOC) spokesman Mark Adams declared that the Commission “fully supports” two trans fighters who are set to compete this week against females. However, he also made contradictory remarks about how the fighters were cleared the fighters to compete.
Adams sought to clarify why Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan and Algeria’s Imane Khelif have been allowed to compete as women in this year’s Olympics boxing contests.
On the one hand, he claimed that as long as the boxers have “female” marked on their passports, then as far as the IOC is concerned, they are women, the Associated Press reported.
Yet, on the other hand, he also noted that the rules now state that the federations and governing bodies that govern any particular sports are the ones that set the final eligibility rules for trans athletes, which would necessarily negate anyone’s gender categories on passports.
“Everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules,” Adams said, according to the AP.
He added, “They are women in their passports, and it’s stated that this is the case, that they are female.”
WATCH:
According to @ioc spokesman Mark Adams if male boxers have passports that say they’re “women”, then they’re “women” & free to punch women in the Olympics. @iocmedia.
— XX-XY Athletics (@xx_xyathletics) July 30, 2024
Also, if these males have been allowed to cheat before in other competitions, Mark Adams says the IOC is fine… pic.twitter.com/El3EjICgvo
However, he then went on with a statement that would seem to contradict his passport standard.
“They are eligible by the rules of the federation which was set in 2016, and which worked for Tokyo too,” Adams explained. “To compete as women, which is what they are. And we fully support that.”
Despite this point, several world sports federations have either put very heavy restrictions on or outright banned transgender athletes. So, in that case, the gender marked on their passports would not matter because the organizations have prevented their participation.
Adams also made the quixotic claim that since the two trans boxers have fought as women before, then why would the Olympics deny them the ability to fight as women in Paris now? This weak point sparked social media users to note that the trans boxers have “cheated in the past,” and apparently, that means Adams is prepared to let them cheat in the present, too.
Still, Adams seems to be not entirely accurate on this point as well. As Breitbart Sports reported on Monday, both fighters were disqualified by the International Boxing Association at the 2023 World Games in New Delhi.
Indeed, the IOC has confirmed that it is using the federation’s rules from 2016 to justify the qualifications of the transgender boxers instead of the more recent rules used by the IBA to exclude them last year.
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