Dutee Chand extends support to under-fire boxer Imane Khalif following controversial win in Paris Olympics

Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) [India], August 2 (ANI): Indian athlete Dutee Chand, the country’s first openly gay sprinter, on Friday talked about the gender controversy being faced by Algeria boxer Imane Khalif at the ongoing Paris Olympics and defended the athlete’s right to compete in the competition.

Italian boxer Angela Carini quit her 66 kg women’s category boxing match against Algeria’s Imane Khalif on Thursday, handing the latter, who was banned from competing in world championships following failures in testosterone and gender eligibility tests, a win in the opening round. Algeria’s Khelif won the fight within just 46 seconds after her opponent quit. A very few punches were thrown before Carini abandoned the match, which is a rare occurrence in Olympic boxing.

Dutee shared her own experience of being dropped from the 2014 Commonwealth Games squad when the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) decided to drop her, citing that she was ineligible to compete as a woman athlete due to hyperandrogenism, which is a medical condition in which woman has a high level of androgens and how it was difficult for her to cope with such problems and immense pressure because of it.

She extended her support to Imane, saying that if the International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not have any problems with her competing and has not raised any questions about her gender, then why her opponent had a problem with her.

Speaking to ANI, Dutee said, “A lot of issues occur when such a situation comes up. I faced it in 2014. Before I was selected for the Commonwealth Games, I was dropped from the team. There were media reports that I had to undergo a gender test, that I am not a woman but a man and that is why I cannot play in the women’s category. At that time, the biggest challenge was to lead a normal life in society…So, with what is happening at the Olympics, she (Imane) will perhaps face a lot of issues…She will face immense mental pressure…”

“Before we go to the Olympics, we face a number of tests – Doping Test, Hormonal Level Test, Gender Test. So, if she is facing a gender issue, how did she participate in the Olympics? She has played in a lot of competitions before this. She must have undergone tests there too. When IOC made no complaints that she is male by gender, how can someone question her?.. She has lost 9 games so far (in her career). Today, she (Angela Carini) is questioning as she lost the game. She would not have raised a question had she won,” she added.

Following the match, the Italian was in tears and refused to shake hands with Khelif, as per ESPN.

In the post-match interview, Khelif said as quoted by ESPN that she felt severe pain in her nose during the fight. She also said that she was not going to judge if Khelif should be allowed to compete at the Olympics.

“I felt a severe pain in my nose, and with the maturity of a boxer, I said ‘enough,’ because I didn’t want to, I did not want to, I could not finish the match,” Carini said.

“I am not here to judge or pass judgment. If an athlete is this way, and in that sense, it is not right or it is right, it is not up to me to decide. I just did my job as a boxer. I got into the ring and fought. I did it with my head held high and with a broken heart for not having finished the last kilometre,” she added.

Just before her gold medal bout in the International Boxing Association (IBA) Women’s Championships held in New Delhi last year, Khelif was disqualified as she had failed to meet IBA’s eligibility criteria. She was not allowed to compete due to elevated testosterone levels, as per ESPN.

But she was allowed to compete in the Paris Olympics by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) task force, which is running past two Olympic boxing events as IBA has been banned from the past two years in Olympics due to governance issues, lack of financial transparency and instances of corruption in judging and refereeing.

IOC defended the rights of Khelif and Lin Yu-ting, another boxer under scrutiny due to failing an unspecified eligibility requirement in a biochemical test, to compete in the Olympics.

Replying to the controversy, the IOC said on Thursday in a statement, “All athletes participating in the boxing tournament of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, as well as all applicable medical regulations set by the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit (PBU). As with previous Olympic boxing competitions, the gender and age of the athletes are based on their passports.”

“These rules also applied during the qualification period, including the boxing tournaments of the 2023 European Games, Asian Games, Pan American Games and Pacific Games, the ad hoc 2023 African qualifying tournament in Dakar (SEN) and two world qualifying tournaments held in Busto Arsizio (ITA) and Bangkok (THA) in 2024, which involved a total of 1,471 different boxers from 172 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), the Boxing Refugee Team and Individual Neutral Athletes, and featured over 2,000 qualification bouts,” the IOC statement read.

The IOC said that the athletes in question had been subjects of an arbitrary decision by the International Boxing Association earlier.

“We have seen in reports misleading information about two female athletes competing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The two athletes have been competing in international boxing competitions for many years in the women’s category, including the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, International Boxing Association (IBA) World Championships and IBA-sanctioned tournaments. These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA. Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process,” the IOC said.

“According to the IBA minutes available on their website, this decision was initially taken solely by the IBA Secretary General and CEO. The IBA Board only ratified it afterwards and only subsequently requested that a procedure to follow in similar cases in the future be established and reflected in the IBA Regulations. The minutes also say that the IBA should “establish a clear procedure on gender testing. The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure – especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years. Such an approach is contrary to good governance,” the IOC added.

The IOC said it was committed to protecting the human rights of all athletes participating in the Olympic Games as per the Olympic Charter, the IOC Code of Ethics and the IOC Strategic Framework on Human Rights. The IOC further said it was saddened by the abuse that the two athletes are currently receiving, the release added.