Nevertheless, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has criticized the IBA’s tests as profoundly defective and has since prohibited them due to concerns regarding governance, alleged corruption, and affiliations with Russia.
The boxer’s father addressed the controversy by presenting his daughter’s birth certificate to the public as evidence that she was born a female.
“We have two boxers who are born as a woman, who have been raised as a woman, who have a passport as a woman, and who have competed for many years as a woman,” he elaborated. “This is the unequivocal definition of a woman.” That they were female was never in question.
At a press conference, even the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, defended the women against the online misinformation, stating, “Let’s be very clear, we are talking about women’s boxing,” as reported by the BBC.
Throughout her entire Olympic campaign, Khelif, who has been contending in women’s boxing since she began participating in the sport and is listed as a female on her passport, did not lose a single round, despite enduring intensive scrutiny.
