Boxing group answers some questions but asks many more about Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting’s tests

PARIS — The International Boxing Association asked new questions while trying to answer others at a chaotic news conference Monday about the murky qualifying tests that prompted the Olympic governing body, banned by organizers, to abruptly suspend Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting from last year’s world championships, a decision that led to online abuse of women at the Paris Games.

The IBA has continued to refuse to release nearly all details about the tests, results, or methodology leading to the disqualifications of Khelifa of Algeria and Lin of Taiwan. The decisions have sparked a huge outcry in Paris over two boxers who won Olympic medals despite facing widespread misconceptions about their gender, as well as a broader divide over gender regulation and identity in sport.

Chris Roberts, the IBA Secretary General and CEO, says the Algerian and Taiwanese Olympic Committees have written to the IBA asking for information about the boxers at the Paris press conference not to be released.

Most of the information released about the tests has been unflattering for the governing body, which was unprecedentedly banned from the Olympics last year after decades of unstable management and long-standing accusations of a complete lack of transparency.

The former head of the medical commission, a Greek obstetrician named Ioannis Filippatos, said the IBA conducted blood tests on only four of the hundreds of players at the 2022 World Cup. The IBA said it conducted the tests on Khelifa and Lin in response to complaints from other teams, apparently recognizing an uneven standard of profiling that is widely considered unacceptable in the sport.

IBA President Umar Kremlev, an acquaintance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who spoke on Zoom from Russia, then said through an interpreter that tests showed elevated testosterone levels.

This appears to be in direct contradiction with the IBA’s July 31 statement, which said Khelif and Lin “did not undergo testosterone testing but were subjected to a separate and recognized test, the details of which remain confidential.”

Roberts, who is Kremlin’s deputy at the IBA, has repeatedly said observers should “read between the lines” about the tests but declined to provide more details.

The IBA also explained why boxers could fail a qualifying test in 2022 but were somehow not suspended from competition until halfway through the world championships, a full year later. Roberts said there was no time to conduct a required second test at the 2022 tournament, and the IBA could only conduct two tests at the 2023 championships.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams said last week that the IBA had given the Olympic body the results of tests conducted on Khelifa and Lin but that they were “so flawed that they were impossible to deal with”.

As he did on his social media accounts, Kremlev spent much of his virtual speaking time attacking the IOC and President Thomas Bach, who called the “hate speech” directed at the two boxers “completely unacceptable.” Kremlev was unable or unwilling to discuss the scientific basis of the IBA tests in technical terms.

“We are going to start proceedings against Mr. Bach and others,” Kremlev said. “I will call on all prosecutors, all judges to investigate this corruption coming from him. The IBA will always protect and defend athletes.”

The IOC said in a statement on Monday that “the content and organisation of the IBA press conference says everything you need to know about this organisation and its credibility.”

The backlash against Khelifa and Lin grew after Khelifa’s first opponent, Angela Carini of Italy, tearfully pulled out of the fight after just 46 seconds. Carini later said she regretted her actions and wanted to apologize to Khelifa.

The IBA has said it plans to award $3.1 million in prizes to top Olympic athletes this summer, in a further act of defiance of the IOC. The Kremlin said last week it also wants to reward athletes, coaches and federations who lost to Khelif and Lin.

The Italian Boxing Federation said on Sunday it would not accept the money from the IBA, while the father of quarter-finalist Pihla Kaivo-oja of Finland said on Monday that his daughter also did not want to accept the money.

“It is absolutely clear that Putin is not allowed to take money,” Juha Kaivo-oja told the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper.

The IBA said it had called a news conference in Paris to answer questions and provide details about the tests that prompted the extraordinary scrutiny of Khelif and Lin, who will compete for medals this week at Roland Garros. Khelif will appear in the 66-kilogram semifinals on Tuesday evening, while Lin will compete in the 57-kilogram semifinals on Wednesday.

But the IBA event started an hour late and was riddled with technical problems, long arguments about non-athlete topics, boos, shouted questions, and ended with frustrated reporters who wandered away from one of the Kremlin’s anti-IOC services on a giant videoboard behind the podium to interview a small group of Khelifa supporters.

The group included Khelifa’s teammate Roumaysa Boualam, an African Games boxing champion and two-time Olympian who fought in Paris.

“Anyone who was portrayed the way (Khelif) was portrayed would feel anger and frustration,” Boualam said. “Everything affects her, like everyone else. But she will say whatever she wants in the ring.”

Khelif spoke at length Sunday night with SNTV, The Associated Press’ sports video partner. She said the wave of hateful scrutiny she faces “harms human dignity” and called for an end to intimidation of athletes.

Both Khelif and Lin ultimately decided not to appeal their disqualifications from last year’s world championships to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, a difficult process that typically costs more than $40,000.

Roberts said the IBA had “covered most of the costs” in other cases where boxers sought to appeal decisions, but the athletes were left to pay an unspecified portion of the costs, sometimes leading to them dropping out due to the financial burden.